The municipal opposition has gained virulence since Anne Hidalgo has decided to drastically increase local tax.
by Laurent Telo
It was on a huge disappointment that the inaugural session of the Paris Council was completed on Tuesday November 15. Rachida Dati, mayor of 7 e arrondissement, and the Parisian Republicans (LR) had decided to boycott the budgetary orientation debate to protest against Anne Hidalgo’s decision, the mayor of the capital, D ‘Increase the property tax by 7 points, which goes from 13.5 %to 20.5 %, a leap of more than 50 %. No Rachida Dati in the hemicycle and therefore last minute cancellation of the announced pyrotechnic show, that of its telluric verbal scuffles, on a highly flammable subject, between the mayor of Paris and his best adversary.
But the right -wing opposition is so ulcerated by the denial of Anne Hidalgo’s campaign commitment not to increase the local taxes that she has decided not to contradict the Parisian executive in the session. This did not prevent him, in the previous days, from feeding a net of “Hidalgo Bashing”. Catherine Dumas, senator from Paris and vice-president of the LR group at the Paris Council, evokes “a serious attack on local democracy because the budgetary orientation report was received by the opposition with five days late”. She describes a “bankruptcy city undermined by debt – about 8 billion” and claims “the tutelage”.
His colleague, Marie-Claire Carrère-Géné, president of the finance committee of the Paris Council, describes this increase in “flight forward”. “To continue not to save money, she makes the pockets of Parisians,” she said about M me hidalgo, even allowing herself an unattractive cinematographic reference: “C ‘is like Oss 117. We wonder throughout the film if he is very stupid or very intelligent. “Two months ago, Anne Hidalgo had announced that she had trouble completing the city’s budget, 250 million euros remaining to be found. “She tries everything for everything by putting all the difficulties on the back of the state which is a big bad guy,” continues M me Carrère-Gé.
“Lack of vision”
Indeed, to justify a drastic increase in local tax, Paul Simondon, Anne Hidalgo’s assistant to finance, multiplies the counterattacks, targets a government majority which is less and less discreetly on a victory Next municipal elections in 2026 and which will not give any gift to Anne Hidalgo: “Faced with inflation, the energy crisis, the State has decided not to support major cities,” he said.
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