Jean-Louis Masson: "We are not just the social welfare authority!"

Of course, the Département provides social and emergency aid, rebuilds road infrastructure and middle schools, supports the action of the SDIS, provides technical engineering, finances development work on public buildings and water supply, etc.

Jean-Louis Masson : « Nous ne sommes pas que la collectivité du social » !

But not only that! EXCESSIVE BUREAUCRACY Addressing the partners of the Conseil départemental, Jean-Louis Masson firmly stated: "We are not just the social welfare authority! If they stepped out of Parisian circles, they would realize the central role of the Département.

It remains a recognized, local actor, a vector of stability, despite the numerous and ineffective institutional reforms."

The president added: "With every budget year, unanswered questions keep coming back to me: How can we be asked to invest more with volatile revenues, capped État subsidies, and expenses imposed without consultation? What remains of the democratic virtues of decentralization, which aim to connect taxes to citizens? Why do they persist in moving decisions away from the ground?

It goes against the aspirations of the French people. It is incomprehensible or, dare I say it, Machiavellian"!

For the departmental representative: "The Départements are the guarantors of the balance between cities and countryside, and they have repeatedly proven this during the successive crises we have been through. The Département is not just one layer of an administrative mille-feuille put forward to the point of nausea by those who claim to reform without worrying about the essentials: acting better for the French people. What we suffer from in our country is not the strata, but rather excessive bureaucracy and technocracy.

We suffer from the standards imposed on us that weigh down budgets. We suffer from the legal straightjackets that paralyze us!

During the year 2024, with my colleagues, I have therefore worked to assert this role of the Départements in public action and above all to carry out operations of importance for the Var. With one certainty: If an action must be taken for the development of the Var, it will be" (...) LET US ACT!

Then, Jean-Louis Masson paid a warm tribute to professional and volunteer firefighters, gendarmes, police officers, and civil protection forces, expressing "all my gratitude and all my support on behalf of the Conseil départemental du Var. This autumn's floods demonstrated your coordination strength and our dependence in times of crisis."

He continued: "While I understand the 60-billion saving effort we must apply, I cannot accept that it should be at the expense of the local public services we support. Let us act where we hold responsibility! No, the Départements are not the cause of the State's hard-to-swallow public deficits.

To all political leaders, I want to tell you that if the situation requires it, I will know how to take my responsibilities in the interest of the Varoises and Varois. Responsibilities which will mean revising the schedule but not the service provided! Responsibilities which will lie in the systematic review of contributions to partners for more equity towards the most vulnerable" (...)

"I want the Département to be irreproachable and innovative in its core missions and to be a partner of solutions, to paraphrase the préfet! I say this because I believe above all in the public service resulting from an intelligent and complementary collaboration between the levels: État, Région, Département, and Commune (...) We cannot build France by turning our backs on who we are, on all the values and all the reference points that have built us," concluded Jean-Louis Masson.