This is a first for a community: the Ile-de-France regional council is preparing to propose to the State to acquire a large part of autonomy, with 40 proposals summarized by Valérie Pécresse, the president of the institution, as a “decentralization shock”. These requests follow a wish of the majority and a mission entrusted to Jean-François Vigier, the president of the UDI Île-de-France group, who interviewed numerous experts. It has now resulted in the region directly contacting the State, in accordance with what the recent 3DS law allows, which grants communities a right to differentiation and a right to experimentation.
“Regional baroness ambitions”, “balkanization of the republic”, “political coup”, “operation without consultation”… Her opponents do not mince their words but the president of Ile-de-France does not give in, judging “absurd” not to be able to invest more in the hospital, permanently exclude repeat offenders of theft and sexual violence from transport or even better pay the minimum wage for Ile-de-France residents, its flagship proposal.
You are complaining to the State about a “decentralization shock in Île-de-France”. Why now and why do you think it’s important?
France remains the most centralized country in Europe. The major decentralization laws are 50 years old and the system is running out of steam, because there is a tangle of administrative levels, stacking, cross-financing, and all this wastes time and money. territorial efficiency… And the regions are all different and all have specificities. We cannot act in the same way depending on whether we are in Brittany, Corsica, or Ile-de-France. These are not the same issues, not the same job prospects, not the same cost of living, etc. We are the first French medical desert, we have half of the poorest neighborhoods in France. It’s stupid to impose a national political reality on territories which have enormous specificities. This is not an act of defiance, it is a hand extended to the government so that it lets go and delegates to us. We want to dare experimentation, that is to say new policies on a territorial scale and dare to differentiate.
Among the proposals, you want to create a regional minimum wage for the Ile-de-France region: why and how much do you want to set it?
We would set it by consultation with the social partners, but the reality is clear: the level of consumer prices in Ile-de-France is 9% higher than the rest of France. An employee paid the minimum wage who rents a studio in Créteil costs him 51% of his income while it would cost him 25% in Limoges. We have a minimum wage which does not offer the same remainder of life. And this is a problem for essential workers, who cannot find housing in Île-de-France. We are pushing people out of the region who should be housed with us.
The increase in the minimum wage is not much of a problem for companies, because as they cannot find the minimum wage, they increase salaries, except for certain large groups which have national salary scales. The problem is for the public service of Ile-de-France: the hospital, the schools, the security guards… They have the lowest salaries. And then, they say that we can’t find caregivers, but what do you want to do? The State must understand that it cannot pay public officials at the same rate in Paris as elsewhere.
Don’t you fear perverse effects, in particular a form of social dumping with competition between regions, each trying to lower the minimum wage to attract workers?
If I want a regional minimum wage it is so that it is higher in Ile-de-France. The State may very well decide to only give this option to regions which are going to increase the minimum wage. Is it normal, worthy and admissible to import essential workers from other regions – from Oise, from Eure-et-Loir, even from Eure – because they cannot stay in Île-de-France? I understand that it bothers my opponents that a right-wing woman can say “I would like decent salaries in my region”, this will deprive them of an argument.
Don’t you fear that the increase in the minimum wage will attract thousands of workers, while the region is already very populated?
The truth is that we are in tension in all professions: in childcare, in nursing homes, we no longer have anyone! And what is happening today? There are many illegal workers who do the work in Île-de-France. And they have no right to retirement, health insurance, maternity…
How much would you increase this regional minimum wage?
I gave you a clue: the cost of living is 8.8% more in Ile-de-France. If we wanted purchasing power parity in all regions, the minimum wage should be 9% or 8.8% more in Ile-de-France. But I do not want to commit to this figure, I am not preempting the discussion with the social partners.
You want to “regionalize the governance of unemployment insurance in Île-de-France” and “regionalize Pôle emploi” Does this mean that you want to act on the duration and amount of certain aid for the unemployed?
This is not my priority, because there has already been a reform made by the government. My priority is the activation of training expenditure for employment, because we spend too much money and we have too many open training courses and not enough results. On paid training, we only have a 40% employment rate behind, that is not normal. We have young people who continue paid training without taking jobs behind. We need to set other rules of the game.
When someone has been paid to follow training, the person must commit to taking the job offered to them or otherwise reimburse the training paid for. It’s great to put young people in parking training, but everyone is recruiting in Ile-de-France, and we still have 7% unemployment. If you look at all the capitals, they are all below 5%. This also comes from this question of salary: obviously if we don’t pay the right price for work, people don’t take it.
Why do you want to create autonomous primary schools under contract?
Because I strongly believe in the autonomy of establishments with differentiated teaching methods, for young people who have learning difficulties. I am thinking in particular of young people who speak French poorly, or of children whose parents are not native French speakers. Differentiated teaching methods are needed for them. So I would like to be authorized to experimentally create schools in the most difficult neighborhoods of Île-de-France, but I would like them to be public schools. Because they exist, but they are private and very expensive. In these schools, it is the region which would recruit the teachers and we would not select the children but on the other hand if the child does not respect the school rules, then we exclude him. It’s like charter schools in the Nordic countries, there would be a contract between the school and the parents. I have been passionate about education topics for years and I am frustrated at not being able to try something at the regional level.
Some say that to fight against the cost of living, you could lower Navigo or canteen prices, rather than establishing a two-speed France. What do you answer them?
That’s all I do. The real price of the Navigo pass is 240 euros, I subsidize it at 65%. And I remind you that essential workers do not live in Ile-de-France, so they do not have Navigo. Regarding canteens, this is the fourth year that I have frozen prices. But that’s not enough, the real cost is housing, and I don’t have housing skills, and there are lots of things that I don’t control.
Why not have formulated these proposals by coordinating with the other regions, the City of Paris, the departments, and all the other political actors in Île-de-France?
But I’m not stealing any skills from the departments, they do what they want. If the departments want to do things, then they should propose them. No one asks for anything, doesn’t offer anything, and here I propose something and it’s bad because I should have proposed with the others? The only thing perhaps [que je veux récupérer] it is the presidency of Public Assistance – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) [la présidente du conseil de surveillance de l’AP-HP est actuellement Anne Hidalgo, maire de Paris]. I would like to invest more in the hospital but I cannot do so because I do not chair the AP-HP whereas today the AP-HP is throughout the region: in Villejuif, in Clamart, in Boulogne , at Versailles… It’s absurd.
The regional supporters of the majority criticize you for not waiting for the proposals of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on the subject before expressing yourself [censées arriver début octobre]…
We have been waiting for Macron’s proposals for five years; he was not elected last year. The 3DS law authorizes me to request new skills. This country is terrible where those who take initiatives are yelled at!
What will happen now? Can the State accept only part of your proposals?
I heard the president say he wanted a decentralization shock, I don’t imagine he could say no. Unless his desire for decentralization is smoke and mirrors. For example we are given the Oriane agency [agence francilienne dédiée à l’orientation] but we are told that we are not allowed to go to colleges, what is the point?
You want to “let the Île-de-France Region define the rules for energy performance and housing renovation”, why?
We need to adapt the rules to Ile-de-France. When we are told that areas of less than 20 m2 we will no longer be able to rent in two years… [Selon l’INSEE, près des deux tiers des logements de moins de 40 m² sont étiquetés comme des passoires énergétiques, classées E, F ou G, qui sont progressivement interdites à la location, en 2025, 2028 et 2034] We don’t have the means to renovate all the small areas within two years, that’s not true, we won’t do it! So it terrorizes everyone and the risk is that all the elderly people or students and young couples will no longer be able to rent anything. The rules must adapt to the specificity of the city.