The number of mayors who have resigned since the start of their term in the summer of 2020 stands at 1,293, an average of 40 per month “comparable” to the previous term, said Wednesday the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu.
The president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), David Lisnard (LR), was alarmed on Monday, in an interview with Figarothe fact that the resignations of local elected officials are reaching “an unprecedented level” with the exceeding of the threshold of “1,000 resigning mayors”, a trend “even faster than during the previous mandate”.
No figure on assistants
Questioned in the Senate during questions to the government, Christophe Béchu declared that 1,293 mayors had resigned from their functions since the beginning of their mandate. “We must always be wary of the figures because over the six years, between 2014 and 2020, 2,925 mayors had resigned and we are therefore on comparable averages of around 40 per month”, he said. indicated, contesting the idea of an acceleration of these resignations.
On the other hand, he gave no figures on the resignations of deputies and municipal councillors, a sharp increase according to the AMF. Among the reasons mentioned by the minister is the health crisis, which weighed heavily in the choice of the newly elected to throw in the towel.
“Go further” to help mayors
“We are only halfway through the mandate and we had a lot of resignations at the very beginning of the mandate”, some of which “certainly linked to Covid-19, to a context of entry into the function which was complicated. I see it in my department with municipal teams where the mayonnaise did not take because we did not have the time and the opportunity to work together, ”he said.
Acknowledging, however, that “the situation does not explain everything”, and that the rise in violence also plays a role in the fed up of elected officials, Christophe Béchu considered that it was necessary to “go further” to help the mayors, citing in particular the establishment of a Senate fact-finding mission on the future of the municipality or ongoing consultations on the status of the elected official.