Through Cathy Ryo
Published on
In September 2022, groups ofopposition from the municipal council of Guérande (Loire-Atlantique) pushed a rant against Mayor Nicolas Criaud and his municipal team.
The Greens slam the door of the city council
With one voice, the 10 minority municipal councilors (1), all persuasions combined, had publicly expressed their fed up with being “muzzled”and considered as “second class elected officials”.
Two months later, in November 2022, on a deliberation on the development of the Saint-Jean square, the elected Greens slammed the door of the municipal council, followed by councilor Catherine Bailhache.
New anger
And the rag is still burning between minority and majority. In a press release signed by the four groups, the opposition is again stepping up to the plate, evoking “dysfunctions which regularly punctuate democratic rules”, “contempt”, “lack of transparency” and “consultation”.
To illustrate their anger, three topical issues: the Loire-Atlantique Departmental Council’s abandonment of the Guérande-La Turballe diversion, the city’s abolition of the 2023 edition of the medieval festival and the project of the Saint-Jean square.
“Guilty passivity”
On the first point, the minority points to “the culpable passivity of the mayor who did not speak publicly to weigh in on the debate upstream of the Department’s decision. Even if some may be in favor of this abandonment, all deplore the way in which this file has been followed and the lack of eagerness of the municipality to create this working group demanded by the minorities to find alternative solutions”.
On the medieval festival, “the purely municipal decision is just as brutal, no information either to the previous council or to the commissions concerned. The announcement of a major consultation after the decision is a parody of consultation”.
As for the Saint-Jean square, the minority gives a layer of it by denouncing “the absence of consultation. And the last column of the majority in the municipal magazine directly attacks all the minority groups, on the grounds that they have expressed political opposition to this project. This behavior is not acceptable”.
“Being in the majority cannot justify everything”
The signatories insist:
Information, which is essential, cannot replace consultation. Being in the majority cannot justify everything. The election is not a reward or a blank check, it is the beginning of a global responsibility.
They want “the second part of the municipality to take place in an open and constructive spirit consistent with the most elementary democratic life”. A wish they had already made in September.
(1) “Let’s live Guérande ecologically and in solidarity”, “A new breath for Guérande”, “Guérande the Future in the Presqu’île”, Anouk Paolozzi Dabo, Yannick Danio.
The mayor’s office responds
Contacted to respond to attacks from minority groups, the mayor’s office assures us that “the opposition, like all elected officials, has information upstream of municipal councils and is regularly associated with the projects of the municipal team. Consulting is important, deciding is just as important. So how can we blame the elected majority for making decisions when they were elected to
that ? “.
And to tackle in turn: “We strongly deplore the legal appeals filed against the projects. We are engaged in a constructive dialogue in favor of the people of Guérande. Politics doesn’t interest us.”
The next municipal council of Guérande will be held this Wednesday, February 1, 2023. The atmosphere is once again likely to be electric in the town hall.
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Guérande: the towel still burns between the opposition and the mayor