The City Council approved the preliminary 2014 budget as the outgoing mayor wished “to not leave a blank page for whoever will be elected next March.” A noble principle that also allowed for the deliberation of subsidies to sports, social, and cultural associations, again “to enable them to plan their activities without any budgetary uncertainty.” However, can we also doubt that this decision is a nod to the beneficiaries who will remember it when the time comes?
After the previous session on December 9th, during which there was a frank discussion between majority and opposition regarding budgetary orientations (and thus strategy), a very technical City Council meeting focused on financial figures presentation was expected.
Not at all that, but instead, a verbal marathon of several hours to say the same things, affirm the same principles, listen to the same considerations, use the same figures to affirm everything and its opposite… And yes, while mathematics is an exact science, numbers will always be subject to interpretation!
Indeed, after traversing the most daring paths of logical thinking between truth, doubt, and lie, we returned to the starting point: A balanced budget with strong moderation of operating and investment expenses, and good debt management for Christian Estrosi and his majority.
A budget without hope or perspective, from a city “red lantern” in all comparative rankings for the opposition, for once united in somewhat vehement criticism. On the other hand, in the midst of the electoral campaign, three months before the election, what can each side say and do?
It’s a pity, however, that to reach this point, we had to endure a true lexical marathon by all the deputies and city councilors who often read, with a deficient “ars oratoria,” the report of their activities too often punctuated by expressions like “thanks to you, Mr. Mayor,” which evoked more of a khanate and its harem of another time than the City Council of a modern democracy.
We do not know who had the great idea nor if, as expressed by Communist councilor Robert Injey, it was “the grand oral of the candidates for candidacy” or simply Christian Estrosi’s response to the accusation against him of wanting to play “the man who commands alone.”
But, what if the answer simply lay in the calendar that reminds us we are in the (municipal) advent season?
