Three deputy mayors ecologist Eric Piolle were deprived of their delegations in the municipal council Monday, May 15, two months after publicly expressing their reservations following the vote of an increase in the property tax. In total, seven elected representatives leave Eric Piolle's majority and will create a new group called Grenoble Démocratie Ecologie Solidarité (GDES). Anouche Agobian, Maxence Alloto and Hakim Sabri were all deprived of their delegations during a tense vote in the city council on Monday night. They were immediately replaced by two new deputies and a delegated municipal councillor.
This break comes after the vote, on March 13, of the city's 2023 budget which provides for a contested +25% increase in the property tax rate to raise 44 million euros to finance a "shield of social and climate justice". The seven elected representatives had expressed their "discomfort" about this increase but had ultimately voted the 2023 budget "in accordance with the founding principles of belonging to a majority group".
A disproportionate measure, of incredible symbolic violence"
Pascal Clouaire, City Councillor
Without elaborating on the conflict, Eric Piolle acknowledged Monday a "disagreement" between the seven and the majority about the "means necessary to amplify the transitions announced" provided for in his program. One of the three deputies sanctioned, Maxence Alloto, expressed his "disappointment" after the vote formalizing their exclusion. Eric Piolle "does not support the contradiction, it is especially that which saddens us because the left is not that," he said.
"The 25% increase was not part of our commitments and therefore we wanted to bring the debate to this issue," said city councillor Pascal Clouaire, who is also one of the seven. The resulting exclusion of the three deputies is in his eyes "a disproportionate measure, of incredible symbolic violence" and in "total contradiction between the measure and the discourse that is carried". The elected officials concerned announced a series of appeals for "excess of power".
