Fabrice Loher and Nicolas Daragon will combine their position as minister with their mandate as mayor.
POLITICS – Fabrice Loher wants to be “both feet in reality”. For his first trip, the new Minister of the Sea was on Wednesday September 25 on the island of Houat, in Morbihan. A piece of land located in Brittany, a region he knows well as mayor of Lorient.
Since his appointment to Michel Barnier’s team, the man has found himself in a convoluted position: both mayor and minister, he combines two important functions and must divide his time between the capital and the Morbihan sub-prefecture. “I care about the city”confirms the elected UDI to West France.
Before explaining the reasons why, according to him, the Prime Minister chose him: “I am being picked up for my local anchor and I want to keep it. And at the same time, ministerial experience and good knowledge of the branches of the State can only strengthen local public action”.
One of his colleagues is in the same position. Appointed to Daily Security under the Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Daragon (LR) does not intend to let go of Valence, the city he has led since 2014. Nor does his chair as vice-president of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region. and president of the Valence-Romans conurbation.
No legal obligation
Until indigestion? The main person concerned, on the contrary, sees this multiplication of responsibilities as an advantage. “ Michel Barnier knew how to trust local elected officials. It’s not often that mayors are in charge of security on a national scale.”he declared shortly after being appointed to the government.
Locally, the left-wing opposition denounces the risk of a mayor with absent subscribers, more busy managing his files in Paris than really running the city. “ What image do we give to citizens? They elect a mayor who already has several mandates, who is appointed minister, who will hardly be present on site and who delegates. His argument is to say that his team is responsible and that they know the files. If his elected officials are competent, let them give way, let him resign,” castigates Jimmy Levacher, elected opposition member of the municipal council of Valence close to La France insoumise, with France 3.
Within the government, others are wondering. Should we prioritize national responsibilities, at the risk of abandoning the field and distancing ourselves from voters? In Transport, François Durovray has decided: he will remain president of the departmental council of Essonne, but is resigning from his position as deputy to the town hall of Montgeron.
In Sports, Youth and Community Life, Gil Avérous made a clearer choice: he will “temporarily” put his mayoral scarf in the closet. Legally, nothing obliges him to do so. You enter government by appointment and not by being elected. Unlike parliamentarians who, since the law on the non-cumulation of mandates passed under the presidency of François Hollande in 2014, can no longer hold several mandates at the same time.
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