A New Team

Attending the inaugural meeting of the new municipal council this morning was interesting. I had attended a council meeting just once a long time ago, when our parents' association was lobbying to get important work done around the school. It was the 'old team' already, so it can't have been more than 12 years ago.

The hall was packed with all those who had voted for/were supporting the new team. 33 councilors in total, 25 for the majority, 8 for the minority (basically the former Mayor and 7 councilors). I bet she, who is now the head of the minority, must have been quite embittered to have been ousted by a slim majority of 86 votes. But such is democracy.

So the former Mayor opened the meeting, announcing the results of the election and saying a few words about how much they had achieved --not in my neighborhood, at least--, and would be helping along, etc, then she handed over to the oldest elected councilor. He, apparently not quite familiar with the ritual --did he really care about protocol, considering he was one of the old team?-- was a little slow in doing what he was supposed to do, i.e. see to the new Mayor's election proper. What we voted for last Sunday was a list of councilors, but the Mayor didn't get elected officially until today, at the first meeting. Well everyone knew who was going to get the position, since he led the winning list, but these little details count too. Then the main councilors, nine of them, who are going to assist him, were also elected. The other side declined to take part. With only 8 seats, they obviously couldn't do anything. It could have been worse: In another very disputed suburb, the incumbent list got all the seats, minus one. That minority member must feel very isolated indeed.

Apart for the ceremonial (with the tricolor belts and so on), there was little to be done in terms of work. So the meeting was adjourned till next week. There was a buffet with drinks afterwards, and I was able to chat with a couple of councilors. They were happy, but they are also very much aware that there is a lot of work to do. And they know that the minority is not going to make it easy for them. Unless those realize that with a ratio of 3:1, they might be better inspired to cooperate and not stop all projects. Their head, by the way, never lived in this town, she lives in Paris.

The big question mark is still about why the heart of the town, with all the amenities --shops, hospital, Post-Office, banks, doctors, train station, you name it--, with a very conservative population, voted overwhelmingly for a Socialist list. They are indeed the voters who ensured the new Mayor's victory, with up to 58% of the votes. In my own precinct, the old Mayor would have won. The only explanation, apart for a change in demographics (not true), is that these older and richer voters are not too happy about what is happening up at the top. So the issue with the President's bad ratings may be more true than we think.

Watch this space. We might have some interesting developments. It seems that the new Mayor has a lot of ideas about participative democracy, so our neighborhoods might finally become alive!