“We will be forced to make savings in any case from 2025”: announces the president of Alès Agglo, Christophe Rivenq

Christophe Rivenq : “On la “chance” d’avoir créé un fonds de roulement en prévision de moments difficiles.” Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Budget, closure of the slaughterhouse, halles de l'Abbaye… The first deputy mayor of Alès, and president of Alès Agglo, shares his overview for the year 2025.

National politics, between the censure of Michel Barnier's government and the arrival of François Bayrou's government, has postponed the vote on the State budget. How does this disrupt the vote on the Agglo budget, which has not yet been carried out at this date ?

We usually always vote on it at the last minute, when we have all the data. It will be voted on between the end of March and the beginning of April. All the more so with this Finance law which does not exist. I do not see us in a position to vote on budgets without knowing what is going to happen to us.

What impact would a Finance law that would force local authorities to make savings, like the one initially planned by Michel Barnier, have on the capacities of the Agglo ? What would have to be cut in this case ?

We will have to cut back on all “non-essential” expenses, even if they are essential for me. Fortunately, we cannot lay off civil servants or lower their salaries, just as we cannot lower several contributions such as the reimbursement of annuities or those for the Sdis (firefighters, editor's note). There are areas such as sports, festivities, culture that are “non-mandatory”, which are subject to the political choices of the municipalities. In the Agglo, there are approximately 20% of expenses that can be adjusted. This concerns, for example, daycare centers, leisure centers, the music conservatory, but we cannot imagine closing one of these structures!

The room for maneuver would be to cut back on our net savings, which will cut back on our investment or our debt. But investment also means jobs and resource factors, for the State too. We are entering a kind of vicious circle set up by senior officials at Bercy who made a very bad calculation by planning to cut 5.6 or 10 billion euros from local authorities. This may be a direct saving for the 2025 budget, but it is a very significant shortfall for 2026. So saying at the national level today that local authorities are jointly responsible for the national debt is an intellectual scam. We ourselves repay the debt we create!

A change of mayor by spring ?

At the head of the City since 1995, Max Roustan begins, in 2025, his 30th year as mayor of Alès. An anniversary that will be publicly celebrated on February 22 as part of “a large popular festival” according to Christophe Rivenq. Since the last municipal elections in 2020, the mayor has been talking about a transfer of power with his first deputy a year before the end of the term, in 2026. The latter should take place in April. “When Max Roustan says something, he does it”, comments Christophe Rivenq, who reserves any other public statement:“He will announce what he wants in due time.”

Will a restricted budget weigh down the schedule of projects launched by the Agglo? ?

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The State's commitments must be kept. On the other hand, we are going to have a drastic drop in its aid in many areas. In Alès, we are “lucky” to have created, at a time when we were doing well, a working capital fund in anticipation of difficult times. This allows us to compensate for any shortfalls for one, two, or even three years, without needing to increase taxes. The cost of operation in Alès is €830 per year per inhabitant, the average is €1,200 for cities in this stratum. And some like Puteaux are at €4,300…

So an economic strategy that allows, in lean times, to avoid impacting finances ?

That's it. Except that we're going to have to make savings if the current political situation continues. Once there's no more working capital, all that's no longer possible. We'll be forced to make savings in any case from 2025.

We should expect cancellations of certain festivities during the year ?

For now, we're starting from the principle of canceling nothing, but of making savings wherever we can. But it is also good to question oneself.

On January 15, you are organizing, with the mayors of the Agglo, your annual ceremony of wishes. Is this a good choice knowing that some elected officials, elsewhere, do not organize them, precisely, for economy purposes ?

I thought about it carefully. It would have saved me time not to do them! But we are already organizing them in a space that belongs to us (the exhibition center, editor's note). It will still be more sober than before. What costs us the most is printing the invitation cards and buying the wines, which come from the winegrowers of Alès. It is also a mark of our support for this suffering profession. But I am maintaining them because it is the only time of the year when all the residents are invited. It is a time for exchange, sharing, meeting with elected officials and each other. It doesn't make sense to remove them.

The slaughterhouse is indeed liquidated on January 15, and then, one hopes, to start a new adventure

The big issue at the beginning of the year is the slaughterhouse. Liquidated on January 15, you plan to rent the structure to a group of private individuals represented by Olivier Roux, who already manages the one in Tarascon. Where are we at ?

It should be wrapped up next week. The slaughterhouse is indeed liquidated on January 15, and then, we hope, we can start a new adventure. The liquidation will take at least 15 days. Everything should therefore be decided from mid-January. I am optimistic: we met with Max Roustan the people who are ready to join forces. They have the skills to run them according to their conditions. We will no longer talk about the slaughterhouse as we do today: the prices will increase, but that will be their problem. All the current staff will be made redundant. But there are a dozen who have apparently agreed to return, even if it means becoming co-shareholders of the structure.

Some farmers claim that in the future structure, there would be no slaughter possible for sheep…

For now, Olivier Roux wants to try to save the tool. So he will go towards the efficient, and the profitable quickly. If the bovine is the most efficient, that is what he will do. But if other markets present themselves, he will adapt. But he is aware of the importance of the “halal” side that Alès carries. That’s why he wants to save it.

The market halls are an emblematic issue for Alès

On the urban planning side, many projects are being launched and completed in 2025. The new Halles are, we suppose, the unmissable event ?

Yes! There are of course other projects, like the Grand-rue Jean-Moulin. But the halles are an emblematic project for Alès, it is the last project of the Estates General of the city center. Financially, with the parking lot to be redone underneath, it is more than what we had planned. And when we see the enthusiasm for the opening of a new market in other cities, we hope that it will be at that level. However, to open as soon as possible, so that the stallholders do not spend another summer in the temporary market (in the parking lot in front of the town hall, editor's note), there will not be, at the inauguration, the total treatment of the square around it. It will be clean, but we will have to come back, a date must be determined with the traders, to treat the square and make it uniform. But at the opening this year, there will be the grand entrance which will be finished in front of the cathedral.

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