There will be no reception at the Elysée during the congress of the Association of French Mayors (AMF), which takes place in Paris from November 19 to 21. It is not the first time that this has happened since 2017, although this meeting ended up becoming a ritual. This year, Emmanuel Macron is touring Latin America. And, therefore, the Head of State will be completely absent from the mayors’ meeting: no visit, no speech, no reception. A first (except for 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic).
During Emmanuel Macron’s double mandate, relations between the President of the Republic and the AMF progressively deteriorated and today fall into hostile indifference. Budget issues have become a point of tension. After seven years of Macronism, local elected officials can no longer endure the lessons of a power that fails to hold the country accountable. “Apart from a deviation in initially planned spending due to local authorities, there is no deviation in state spending”declares the Head of State the expressIn May. In September, the two former Economy and Budget Ministers of Gabriel Attal’s government, Bruno Le Maire and Thomas Cazenave, mainly attributed the outflow of public finances to local elected officials.
For seven years, Emmanuel Macron and the AMF have had a series of failed meetings. While, under the leadership, in particular, of its first vice president, the socialist André Laignel, the association has developed an increasingly frontal line of opposition with the executive, the head of state has distanced himself.
“Too centralizing vision”
After a lively exchange in 2021, during the congress of mayors, the President of the Republic abandoned the political event the following year, preferring a visit to the “hall”, where the partners of the elected meet. In 2023, he contented himself with a reception of local elected officials at the Elysée, in a context of recurring tensions. That year, a meeting on decentralization between the head of state and local elected officials was organized at the Elysée, without the AMF. In May 2024, the president of the association, David Lisnard (Les Républicains, LR), proposed to the President of the Republic to resolve, once and for all, the conflict over the finances of local authorities through a public debate. Emmanuel Macron never responded to him.
You have 64.72% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
