An auspicious exchange.
This Friday, the LR president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), David Lisnard, met Elisabeth Borne for more than an hour.
Despite "
differences of vision
" on certain subjects, the mayor of Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) admits that the Prime Minister was "
listening and respectful
", and that the discussions were "
positive
".
They were able to address many subjects, such as the Zero Net Artificialization (ZAN) approach, on which the tenant of Matignon would have agreed to "
review the method
".
Read alsoDavid Lisnard: "Restore security, a
sine qua non
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Regretting the "
conflicting relations
" between the State and the local authorities during the previous five-year term, where the latter were too often "
put before a fait accompli
", David Lisnard intends to ensure that the principle of subsidiarity - according to which decisions must be taken by the lowest competent level of public authority - be respected during this new presidential mandate.
He also calls for “
local freedom
” and recalls the need for more “
decentralization of public powers
”.
“Neither pessimistic nor optimistic”
At the end of July, the AMF had also expressed in a press release “
its incomprehension in the face of the contradictory declarations of the government on the imposed reduction in community spending
”.
The association criticized the Minister of the Economy for wanting to impose a reduction in operating expenditure on local authorities, without having consulted them beforehand.
David Lisnard then recalled that "
the operating budgets of local authorities are not a problem for the public accounts, since they are necessarily in balance
", but that "
these are the expenditures of the State - which borrows to finance its functioning - and the social expenditure which weighs in the accounts of the nation
".
After this summer meeting with the Prime Minister, David Lisnard is "
neither pessimistic nor optimistic
" about the future of relations between the executive and the AMF.
“
We will see over time
,” he smiles.
The mayor of Cannes, however, specifies that this is only a "
beginning of the cycle
".