The Region has strived since 1998 to support and promote the culture of “working together” and wishes to reaffirm that a territory is above all a place to live and not an artificial construction.
Forcing the Roya municipalities into an intercommunality without a project is to disrespect the work of the valley’s elected officials and their ability to implement a community of municipalities as recommended by Prefect Garnier in 2001, with Jean Michel Drevet as the secretary-general.
The technical elements provided by the State do not support the merger of the Roya municipalities into the CARF.
According to the law, it is possible to create an EPCI of at least 5,000 inhabitants. There is spatial coherence in forming a community of municipalities; the living area does not depend on the coastline since less than 20% of the inhabitants work on the coast, and financial solidarity is called into question by the lack of investment in this Valley for 3 years if this merger is validated.
However, the most shocking aspect of the Prefect’s attitude is the absence of the citizen, the denial of the populations.
Indeed, the State imposes this territorial division on local elected officials, even though they derive their legitimacy from the polls and their closeness to the inhabitants.
We do not want competition between territories as advocated by those who support this merger; the size and number of inhabitants should not be central in this framework, as is currently the case.
Allow us today to commend the courage and determination of certain local elected officials and association leaders who, despite the pressures, encourage democratic debate by supporting the popular consultation on Sunday, September 4.
In their eyes, it is about putting the citizen at the heart of public action and not disregarding them by imposing this division.
The State must interpret the meaning of this democratic movement, and it could be a means of initiating a new, more transparent, and fairer consultation.
The Prefect must understand that identity, whether national or intercommunal, cannot be decreed, especially not by wielding the penal code.
Pascale GERARD, Vice President of the PACA Regional Council
