Environmentalist mayor of Poitiers (Vienne), Léonore Moncond'huy is preparing to interrupt her mandate in March and for eight weeks for maternity leave.
This happy news is accompanied for this thirty-year-old as for all “full-time elected officials” by an unfortunate paradox: in France and during this period of time, their allowances are… purely suspended.
The law does not provide any mechanism to compensate for the loss of income of mayors and elected officials fully committed to their mandates.
The situation would have been different if Léonore Moncond'huy had kept a job in the private sector, alongside her activities as an elected official.
“The loss of income would be fully compensated, as is the case for the majority of employed women.
Elected officials are not the only ones in this case, the status of self-employed women, who do not have collective mutual insurance, generates the same effect,” she declared to La Nouvelle République, denouncing “a legal void.
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Also read: Poitiers: who is Léonore Moncond'huy, the new environmentalist mayor?
This situation "is likely to constitute a real obstacle to the commitment and renewal of the elected representatives of the Republic", regrets Léonore Moncond'huy, recalling that it concerns paternity and adoption equally.
In fact, the mayor of Laval (Mayenne) Florian Bercault raised similar questions in 2021 during the birth of his first child, for paternity leave.
Two legislative texts under discussion
However, the mayor of Poitiers did not intend to make her motherhood a political subject.
But the news finally caught up with the elected environmentalist confronted with this “legal insecurity.
» In March, discussion of a law relating to the creation of a status for local elected officials will begin in the Senate.
Another text aimed at improving the condition of elected officials was also tabled in parallel in the National Assembly.
In a letter addressed to the Minister responsible for Local Authorities Dominique Faure, Léonore Moncond'huy calls for support for "the right to maternity leave and the maintenance of the level of income for all elected officials exercising a full-time mandate.
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“I claim the same rights as everyone else”
The Association of Mayors of France (AMF) intends to take up this subject to “encourage and strengthen the engagement of young parents in public life.
» “The question will arise much more in the future and should “achieve consensus”, believes the AMF, denouncing “the breakdown in equality between elected officials and private sector employees” faced with maternity, paternity and more broadly vagaries of life.
In Poitiers, Léonore Moncond'huy intends to take advantage of the eight weeks of her maternity leave - the minimum duration imposed by law on elected officials.
“What I am demanding is the same right as everyone else (…) Eight weeks is reasonable, when the average in France is twelve weeks,” she confided to La Nouvelle République while castigating the injunction formerly given to women, after giving birth, to “come back straight away, as a sign of efficiency and performance.
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