MAYORS are quitting in hordes all over France. The phenomenon has taken a tsunami proportion as in the past four years no less than 1,021 of them have abdicated. This figure does not include another 500, certain to renew their terms in the next elections but refusing to advance the candidatures.

There is an explanation.

As President Macron has promised to reduce, or altogether eliminate a number of local taxes, there will be lesser funds available to carry on the promised development projects.

Philippe Rion who recently resigned as Mayor of Castillon in the Alps province says: “I quit my duties as I am no longer in a position to fulfill my promises.”

According to Press figures, nearly 900 of the abandoning mayors belong to the tiny rural towns of less than 2,000 inhabitants.

And mayors are not the only ones turning their backs!

To take the example of Elincourt, a 100 kilometers north of Paris with its 1,000 inhabitants, six of the 15 municipal council members have resigned and emergency elections are called next month; similar scenario is repeated in a number of other communes.

While politicians, resigning mayors and the media give explanations for this disastrous avalanche in terms of lack of funds, not many dare to speak of the degrading social ambiance in many small cities.

Stephane Gatignon who resigned as Mayor of Parisian suburb Sevran, says tiny communities are on the verge of burn-outs, to use his own expression, on account of rising violence and drug trafficking.

Yvette, the resigning mayor of a picturesque rural town of 600 inhabitants on the bank of the river Loire, agreed to give her explanation under the promise that neither her last name nor that of her commune will be revealed in this article.

She says: “Of course the argument of lack of money is valid in the sense that newer and newer laws taking into account ecological needs are forcing the villages to bring changes to roads and water, gas and electric supply systems without providing them extra money; this is making things difficult for the mayors who are there for no other reason but to improve the living conditions of their co-citizens.

“Take my own example. I have been the mayor of my town for the past 20 years for no other reason but that. We have an elementary school, a town hall, a tennis club, a café-bar and a church — and that’s about it. But all our lives have turned around these icons for generations. We have kept them going with the modest resources that we have but at the same time strictly observing the law.

“Things have changed for the past 10 years or so. Law has taken the back seat as we are all now slaves of the so-called human rights organisations.

“They go out practically every day into the Mediterranean using expensive boats, often even helicopters, bringing in immigrants by hundreds who they claim were drowning in the sea.

“This is an absolute lie. The fact is that, thanks to mobile telephones, the NGOs and the immigrants are in touch with each other right from the beginning of the adventure.

“Once they are brought in, we’re expected to provide them with shelter and food.

“All these could be honourable gestures, but do you expect me to contribute to the denigration of the beautiful, peaceful town I, my father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather were born in?

“There are laws against turning up rap songs at full volume in public places, against yelling into smart phones in buses and trams, against scribbling ugly, obscene graffiti on walls. But we cannot apply these laws for the so-called politically correct reasons.

“I had no other choice but to resign!”

The writer is a journalist based in Paris

ZafMasud@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...