“We knew things were going badly, but at this point, it’s not acceptable,” reacts senator LR Bruno Belin

He will contact the Budget Ministry on Wednesday. Due to a significant “hole” in the coffers, the gendarmerie is no longer able to pay the rent for its premises in several municipalities in France. The Minister of Budget and Public Accounts, Laurent Saint-Martin, assures Tuesday on franceinfo that he will “look precisely” at the subject.

“We knew things were going bad, but at this point, it’s not acceptable”reacts Tuesday October 8 on franceinfo Bruno Belin, senator Les Républicains de la Vienne, vice-president of the Senate Finance Committee, author of the information report “Real estate of the national gendarmerie: putting an end to building disorder”. The gendarmerie is no longer able to pay its rents in several departments of France, notably in the Pyrénées-Orientales, according to information revealed by France Bleu. Hundreds of municipalities find themselves in difficulty, because they go into debt to finance the construction of barracks.

Bruno Belin will contact the Budget Ministry tomorrow, Wednesday. “The municipalities have become the bankers of the Statedenounces the senator. When the State needs cash, it does not honor its commitments and the municipalities pay the price..

Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin promised Tuesday on franceinfo, “look precisely” the subject. “The Ministry of the Interior has had an increasing budget in recent years, whether in terms of staff or in terms of resources”underlined the minister. “Local authorities are not responsible for the state of our public finances”he admitted. In a note sent to parliamentarians at the beginning of September, the resigning Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and his Minister for Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave nevertheless warned of the“extremely rapid increase in expenditure by local authorities”, degrading “the 2024 accounts alone amount to 16 billion euros”. “Local authorities are allies. We obviously have a recovery to do together, commensurate with what is possible for the communities”for his part, defended the new minister.

The gendarmerie budget represents 10.3 billion euros, 90% of which is devoted to payroll. Bruno Belin wonders if the mobilization of the police during the Olympics and the riots in New Caledonia has not dug a hole in the coffers. “It was obviously necessary to compensate and organize the mobilization of the gendarmes, then the event in New Caledonia which obviously required significant forces, that can explain,” he notes. Senator LR of Pyrénées-Orientales, Lauriane Josende, requested the Ministry of the Interior, since“it was indicated to me” that the “200 million euros” intended to pay the rent of the gendarmerie have been spent. But in these cases, “we play on fungibility and other operations, but we do not put town halls and communities in difficulty”, says Senator Bruno Belin.