Éric Woerth officially submitted his report on decentralization to Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. Among the former minister’s proposals, the return to multiple mandates. An idea that is not unanimous among the majority.
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![Renaissance deputy Éric Woerth in the Salle des Quatre Colonnes at the National Assembly, in Paris, October 19, 2022. (ARTHUR NICHOLAS ORCHARD / HANS LUCAS / AFP)](https://www.francetvinfo.fr/pictures/eM-59aUi57xuvSJycH9j0bpkTGw/0x612:5998x3983/432x243/2024/05/31/080-hl-norchard-1871830-6659709f4ba90675148383.jpg)
A return of deputy mayors and senator-mayors, in the old way, is what Éric Woerth recommends in his report on decentralization submitted, Thursday, May 30, to the President of the Republic. A species which has disappeared since 2017, after the elimination of the accumulation of mandates by François Hollande. The former minister suggests resurrecting them, but it is difficult to know if the proposal will succeed, because it is a bit of a big gap in the presidential majority.
Within the majority, there are those very much in favor, like Karl Olive, former mayor of Poissy in Yvelines, who regularly tried to advance the idea. Édouard Philippe’s party also applauds Éric Woerth’s proposal. “This is proof that we were on the right track“, boasts a Horizons MP.
Horizons had in fact defended a pro-cumulative proposal last March. Édouard Philippe’s troops even managed to get the Assembly to vote on a “soft” version with just the parliamentary-deputy mayor combination. A sham adoption, because there were only a hundred deputies in the hemicycle, and it was passed thanks to the RN and LR, when Renaissance is divided on the question. “We thought we were clear enough at that point“, we joked to the group. It was freedom of vote and among the Macronists, there were more votes against than votes for. “Woerth kept his RPR reflexes“, berates a left-wing deputy hostile to cumulation. The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, is also openly against it.
On the Modem side, “we have 50 deputies… And that’s 50 nuances of accumulation“, laughs an executive. Some for, but only for the mayors of small towns, some against and some very against for whom the accumulation is a matter of “clientelism“, or who consider “impossible to do both jobs correctly at the same time“. In short, as a parliamentary advisor sums it up: “there is no majority within the majority“.