A kind of “great fear” grips local elected officials, almost throughout the country. What would happen if, in the 2026 municipal elections, the number of candidates plummeted? In September, the president of the Association of Small Towns in France, the mayor (Socialist Party) of Barentin (Seine-Maritime), Christophe Bouillon, screwed up: “We cannot imagine elected officials collapsing. Attention ! If we are not careful, the risk is great, really very great, that a failure by the mayors will lead to a democratic collapse and even a territorial blackout. »
In this context, statistics on mayoral resignations are closely examined. Because they give an imperfect indication of the mood of the troops. Since the beginning of the mandate of the mayors elected during the June 2020 municipal elections, “2,400 mayors have resigned and 57,000 municipal councilor seats remain vacant”said the Minister of Association with the Territories, Catherine Vautrin, on Monday, November 18, in The Figaro. A year and a half earlier, the government cited the figure of 1,293 resignations. Therefore, some 1,100 mayors would have left their duties between April 2023 and October 2024, according to Mme Vautrin.
A surprising worsening, although a peak is often reached in the medium term. The acceleration was measured by Martial Foucault, a professor at Sciences Po Paris, who has worked extensively on the topic of local elected officials. During the 2008-2014 mandate, remember, the average number of resignations was 150 per year; in 2014-2020, 250 per year; from 2020 to 2023, it was 450 per year. For its part, the cabinet of Mme Vautrin gives these averages: 485 resignations annually compared to the previous mandate; 529 since 2020.
However, these elements, extracted from the national directory of elected officials, should be taken with caution, as specified by the Ministry of the Interior itself. Indeed, the definition of the reasons for resignation taken into account in the directory has evolved, their number has increased from six to eleven in 2021, and the details that the prefectures give in the directory of elected officials also vary. Long-term comparisons are therefore risky.
cry from the heart
On the other hand, the testimonies leave no room for doubt about the fear of a “democratic crash.” At the congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), which is being held in Paris from November 19 to 21, Jean-Luc Lentier, left-wing mayor of Vézac (Cantal), questioned Catherine Vautrin: “We are fed upsaid. Madam Minister, I think that in two years there will be many fewer mayors because we can’t take it anymore…”
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