2023-08-22 04:52:00
Under this legislature, many Walloon local elected officials left their posts. The phenomenon is not new, but it remains particularly challenging. One year from the next municipal elections, what avenues are envisaged to put an end to this haemorrhage? Especially since a study published a few months ago by the Union of Towns and Municipalities of Wallonia, indicated that one in five local elected officials did not wish to stand once more in the next election. In a review devoted to local authorities published several weeks ago, we learned that “of the 7,020 municipal mandates, council and college combined, 1,072 (i.e. 15.27%) ended prematurely, of which 691 (i.e. 64% ) via a resignation”, explained the Walloon deputy, Yves Evrard (MR) in a written question put to the Walloon Minister of Local Authorities, Christophe Collignon (PS).
If we look only at mayors, we also see that 61% of resignations occur in rural municipalities. A malaise that would have several sources. Let us mention, without being exhaustive, the deterioration of the relationship between elected officials and citizens, social networks, the weight of responsibilities, etc.
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Remuneration commensurate with responsibilities
For the Union of Towns and Municipalities of Wallonia (UVCW), one of the reasons which accentuates the problem of local elected representatives in rural areas, in smaller municipalities, lies in the status of the mayor himself. Indeed, the first of the citizens does not exercise his profession full time, the remuneration not allowing it, unlike the larger municipalities. One of the recommended solutions would therefore be to make them full-time, in order to allow them to devote themselves 100% to their municipality.
In his response to MP Evrard, the Walloon Minister for Local Authorities, Christophe Collignon also pointed out the main problems linked to the functions of mayors and aldermen. “The responsibility of elected officials is colossal. It is linked to their proximity to citizens: urgency, ultra-availability, pressure of immediacy and attacks on their physical integrity; new communication tools, including the drift of social networks; successive crises, an increase and a complexification of the matters, the missions and the requests addressed to the agent in general and to the mayor in particular; resources are limited, etc. Nevertheless, local elected officials are always there, they have demonstrated it in the successive crises that we are experiencing”.
If the findings are important, the solutions are even more so. For the Walloon minister, the government has not stood idly by. It sets out several measures taken, including “the #AmbitionsCommunes operation, which aimed to meet with the smallest municipalities to identify the problems encountered on a daily basis and build possible solutions with their representatives. These numerous meetings allowed me to meet a little less than 300 mayors and general managers and to work with 250 agents, department heads…”. He also announces an upcoming decree “which will address the issues of participatory budgets and citizen consultation operations with the preparation of practical tools”.
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Social networks
Finally, other measures relating to the communication of municipalities via social networks should be taken before the end of the legislature. “My preliminary draft decrees on simplification presented to the government on May 26, 2023 integrate social networks at the communication level. The amendments aim to regulate the access of political groups to the social networks of the municipality. Municipalities can, in addition, open an official page on social networks intended to quickly provide information to citizens”.
However, nothing seems planned today to change the status of mayors of small municipalities. We are sent back to the next legislature, that is to say to the Greek calends…
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