A call for more clarity and a response to the judgment made by Emmanuel Macron on the French.
Gathered under the banner of the "United Territories", the three main associations of elected officials have just adopted a more muscular tone with regard to the executive since the start of the vaccination campaign.
“Faced with the flood of contradictory information, the French doubt.
They are not prosecutors.
They just want to see it clearly in a troubled health age.
And hope, ”write the Association of Mayors of France, the Assembly of France and Regions of France, in a joint statement released on Monday.
Very critical of the vaccine campaign led by the government, local elected officials praise their proximity to the populations most vulnerable to the virus.
“Who better than the local authorities knows these audiences?
», Write François Baroin, Dominique Bussereau and Renaud Muselier, respectively presidents of the AMF, the ADF and Regions of France.
Since the start of the crisis, local communities have deplored the fact of not being directly involved in the implementation of the health strategy.
If Prime Minister Jean Castex has regularly praised the involvement of local communities, they have often denounced a gap between words and actions.
In an interview with Le Figaro on Monday, Gérard Larcher, qualifying local elected officials as “whistleblowers”, called for “territorialized management” of the crisis.
"Centrality pushed to the extreme is a blocking factor, including for the vaccine strategy", hammered the president of the Senate, the institution considered as the chamber of the territories.
"Truth and clarity" on vaccine stocks
Before specifying the list of clarifications they are waiting for, the elected representatives today insist on the need to restore a favorable climate in the country.
“Restoring trust is critical.
It requires truth and clarity ", they underline, asking the State" for a real clarification of its strategic vision "in terms of vaccination.
State of stocks, schedule of supplies, volumes of doses available, planning of vaccine phases, etc. On all these points, local elected officials not only demand “transparency” but also presentation of data “in real time”.
The communities are very insistent on these subjects because since the launch of the vaccines, posted on the front line of the vaccination centers for which they are in charge, they express their difficulty in organizing the planning, for lack of reliable information and coordination.
They believe that the “contradictory” messages from the authorities arouse “misunderstanding” and “concern”.
A “balanced network” of vaccination centers also seems “crucial” to them at a time when they consider rural areas to be under-equipped in this area.
A social climate that worries
Seven weeks after a first anticipatory press release on the vaccine campaign, pending a re-containment, the economic and social consequences of which they fear, local elected officials have therefore chosen to change their tone.
This time, they no longer address the Minister of Health Olivier Véran but directly to the State.
It is a way of underlining their weariness but also the worsening of an increasingly tense social climate in the country.
The concern of local communities is all the stronger as they feel they have unsuccessfully multiplied warning messages such as this previous press release in which, from December 4, the United Territories already warned the Minister Véran on the fact that it would be "illusory to consider effectively organizing such a field campaign without their assistance".