Eric Ciotti adopted an old adage, which in these times of innovative and sometimes out-of-control finance, has been somewhat lost: it is better not to have debts. And for this, why not sell the family jewels to balance the books?
Hence the sale (at a very good price) of 4 out of the 5% of shares that the department held in the management company of Nice Côte Azur airports as part of its privatization.
The use of this jackpot, 81 million, was split in two halves: one for debt reduction (which will decrease the burden of interest in the years to come), the other to provide more impetus for investments.
Nothing new, as the President of the Departmental Council had already publicly expressed himself on several occasions on this subject, following the principle that you first communicate externally, then have the delegated body vote.
Just to make clear who is in charge and who must say yes.
Everyone has their role.
Yesterday, therefore, in a plenary assembly, the departmental majority was called upon to ratify the decision of its President during the debate on the budgetary orientation for 2017, the two arguments being linked to each other (the so-called 40 million recovery plan coming from the sale of airport shares “financing” the additional investments planned in the budget). He acted as usual with the group discipline he is known for, leaving the weak voices of the opposition the care to oppose… without opposing too much!
In fact, facing Eric Ciotti’s offensive for whom—he is inexhaustible on this topic—France is on the brink of an abyss… (thankfully the return to earthly paradise is approaching with the 2017 presidential elections), Mrs. Gourdon took her courage in both hands to recall some small truths: the debt they intend to reduce is nothing other than that caused by a previous recovery plan (which obviously did not revive much…) of 400 million in 2009.
More stoic in persistence, the communist Francis Tujague resumed the traditional anti-capitalist litany. It must be admitted that he does it with such moderation that one would want to tell him he is right to see him content.
But the recovery plan was not the only argument in the presentation of the 2017 budget: “with undisguised pride”—these are his words—Eric Ciotti put forward the good results of cost control mainly due to a stabilization of operating expenses, primarily due to a reduction in staff of more than 700 people since 2009 and a policy of controlling undue RSA expenses, which saved nearly 32 million.
Needless to say, the oppositions distanced themselves from this orientation that Francis Tujague defined as an “obsessive will” resulting in “a decrease in operating means.”
Finally, politics with a capital P made its entry into the hemicycle with the motion proposed by Eric Ciotti himself, which expressed his support and solidarity with the law enforcement forces that mobilized in this kind of “Nuit debout” replica where they would be, this time, the victims and no longer the “villains.”
The pre-electoral thread of this proposal being as thick as a rope, the oppositions, while declaring their support for the law enforcement forces, refused to participate in the vote.
One did not need to be a king of intelligence to understand that this operation aims to seek the favor of these professional bodies composed of thousands and thousands of voters.
