“I take it as a usurpation of signature”: a joint letter from the Agglo de Sète to Bayrou on the LGV provokes controversy

Thierry Baëza et Michel Arrouy sont montés au créneau. MIDI LIBRE

L’Agglo de Sète a renvoyé au Premier ministre le même courrier envoyé fin novembre à Barnier au sujet de la future Ligne à grande vitesse.

“Je suis colère. Je ne le laisserai pas passer, nous ne sommes pas des marionnettes”. He is wound up like a clock, Michel Arrouy, the mayor of Frontignan. This outing, rare for the character, was provoked by a joint letter sent at the beginning of January, by the Agglo of Sète, to the address of François Bayrou, the Prime Minister, about the fears of elected officials on the LGV file. They are asking for a “complete review” of the Montpellier-Perpignan high-speed line (LNMP) project, as currently planned.

The same letter sent to Barnier's successor

“This is the same letter that was sent to Michel Barnier at the end of November, explains the Agglo. It was sent back to his successor so that it would be at the top of the pile” . Except that. Except that the first letter had been signed, in conscience, by all the mayors of the Agglo. And in no case the second. In addition, the first magistrates concerned were not notified. “I just learned about it from outside, from someone from the Region who called me furious when he saw my signature”, storms the mayor of Muscat.

These are methods from another time

“We were not informed of this sending, Michel Arrouy gets carried away. It's not possible. There are limits that must not be crossed. This discredits politics, he says. He We must not forget that an agglomeration has no legitimacy resulting from universal suffrage. These are cities that work together. There, these are methods from another time. When I sign a document, I engage the responsibility of the municipality. No one has the right to sign in my place! I take it as a usurpation of signature.” If the other mayors of the agglomeration have not reacted particularly, that of Mèze, Thierry Baëza, is in the same tendency as that of Frontignan. “I never signed this second letter, he said, particularly annoyed. They copied and pasted the first one and sent it. These are things that are not done.”

Apologies expected

“Between the first letter and the second, things have changed,said Michel Arrouy. The Occitanie Region and the State have come together to discuss the matter. There is currently a whole phase of negotiations”. From there to fear that this letter will ultimately ruin everything… In the meantime, the Frontignan chief magistrate has expressed his thoughts to Jean-Guy Majourel, the first vice-president of the Agglo in charge of the LGV file. And will remain firm on two points: “I expect an apology and a withdrawal of this letter.”

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