Would certain municipalities be disadvantaged in the allocation of regional subsidies in Paca? In any case, this is what the LR mayors of Cannes, Mandelieu-La Napoule (Alpes-Maritimes) and Saint-Raphaël (Var) put forward, meeting this Monday in the city of festivals. David Lisnard, Sébastien Leroy and Frédéric Masquelier denounce “the inequitable nature” of the granting of this funding allocated by the community chaired by Renaud Muselier. They call for “the establishment of an audit” and “the creation of an equity observatory”.
“Public money does not belong to personalities and should not depend on partisan considerations”, dropped David Lisnard, whose relations with Renaud Muselier have been strained since the regional elections of June 2021. The outgoing, had been elected facing a list of the RN thanks to a rapprochement with LREM, not to the taste of the Cannes elected official. The latter, chosen, a few months later, at the head of the association of mayors of France, had seen the president of Paca, defector of LR, campaigning against him.
Some financing was already “contracted”
“Renaud Muselier voluntarily disengages the region from expected funding, some of which has even been contractualized. The cities of Cannes, Mandelieu-La Napoule and Saint-Raphaël are particularly targeted […] and this despite compliance with the criteria for awarding grants,” supports a joint statement.
The Cannes-Lérins agglomeration would thus be without news of a payment of 942,525 euros for actions to fight against floods. And the town hall of the city is still waiting for a grant of 1.8 million euros for the redesign of its alleys of freedom. Amounts however listed in the regional contracts of territorial balance.
In addition, “as part of the Contract for the Future and the 5 billion euros announced by the Prime Minister and the President of the region on January 5, 2021, Cannes and Mandelieu-La Napoule will have nothing from the region”, assure -they. For Estérel-Côte d’Azur agglomeration, on the Saint-Raphaël side, “the region and the State had committed themselves to 9 million euros for the construction of a multi-sector sorting center” while “this amount is now reduced to 3 million euros”. Associations have also lost their grants, says David Lisnard. The one that was allocated to the Canneseries festival, of 185,000 euros in 2021, also disappeared “without explanation”.
“A banana region”
Also present in Cannes on Monday, Charles-Ange Ginésy, the president of the Alpes-Maritimes department, specified that the subsidies promised to the territory under the Contract for the Future had arbitrarily increased from 48 million euros, of which 14 million for two operations in the Cannes-Lérins agglomeration, to 18 million, including 0 euro for Cannes, before rising to 28 million, still without a budget line for Cannes projects.
“We were not zealous enough in converting to macronism,” said Deputy Eric Ciotti, chairman of the department’s finance commission, alongside him. Also in open conflict with Renaud Muselier and his deputy president, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, the candidate for the presidency of LR “denounced the way in which public money is used in a house plagued by sectarianism with motives only politicians”. It evokes “a banana region”.
Requested by 20 minutes, the regional authority reacted in a press release evoking “a display of bad faith and untruths, which ultimately relates to the specific situation of three municipalities out of 946 in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region”. She specifies that Renaud Muselier will reserve “a certain number of answers” for the Salon of mayors and intermunicipalities of the Alpes-Maritimes, scheduled for Thursday.