Cumulating a mandate as a deputy with that of mayor is still not an option, the Assembly decided on Friday. By virtue of the principle voted under François Hollande, parliamentarians can no longer be mayors, deputies, presidents or vice-presidents of intermunicipal, departmental council and even regional council. The deputies elected in 2017 are the first to be said to be non-cumulative.
But to better “reconnect” parliamentarians to the territories again, the UDI deputies had already put on the agenda of their “niche” on Friday a proposed organic law. adopted in October by the Senate dominated by the right. The aim was to eliminate the incompatibility between the mandate of parliamentarian and the functions of mayor or deputy mayor in municipalities with up to 10,000 inhabitants, or 97% of French municipalities.
“The deputy hardly exists any more on the ground”
Recalling his experience during fifteen years as deputy mayor of Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), the boss of the UDI group Jean-Christophe Lagarde pleaded in favor of this “measured, limited accumulation”. Because “there is a balance to be found” and it would not be a “step backwards”, according to him.
The LR group gave it its support, emphasizing through the voice of Brigitte Kuster that “our democracy has not emerged strengthened” from non-cumulation, contrary to the stated objective. “The law has helped to keep elected officials away from citizens” and “the deputy hardly exists any more on the ground,” said Bruno Bilde, of the National Rally.
“Who is the most disconnected? “
But the majority strongly defended themselves. “You weaken the function of deputy”, which would be “not effective, not useful”, rose Aurore Bergé (LREM). But “a deputy, that’s what you make of him!” “” Who is the most disconnected? The deputy mayor for decades? Or is it the one who has lived in a company, a hospital, an association, and who comes to bring his experience to this hemicycle? “Asked Jean-René Cazeneuve, thereby defending the Macronist battalions that arrived in 2017. The left came to support the majority, criticizing a centrist” decline and regressive “bill,” a remedy worse than the disease “.
The non-accumulation allowed “a renewal of the political class” but it is “premature” to draw an overall assessment, judged for her part the Minister Delegate for the City Nadia Hai. “The reflection deserves to be deepened”, she added, while the Prime Minister or even the President of the Assembly Richard Ferrand recently said they were in favor of an adjustment of the rule of non-cumulation.