In all the municipalities, it is no longer even possible to share the famous “glass of friendship” at the very beginning of the year. Creative Commons Photo
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Highlights of public life, the greeting ceremonies are once again paying the price of the health crisis. In response to their cancellation, elected officials fall back on social networks. But for those of them recently installed, it is a heavy blow in terms of proximity. One more…
Belote and rebelote. For those who did not understand it through the voice of Jean Castex during the press conference given on December 20, Gérald Darmanin, the next day, addressed in writing the following instruction to all the prefects of the country : “For the sake of consistency and exemplarity and in order to protect ourselves collectively against the appearance of clusters which would have the effect of accelerating the spread of the virus, we ask you not to organize traditional greeting ceremonies. “And the Minister of the Interior to ask the representatives of the State to” relay this message to elected officials “in order to invite them to give up any event of this kind” face-to-face, whatever the format chosen “. Received five out of five. And everyone went there with their fallback solution… In Metz, it was aboard a river shuttle that François Grosdidier produced a video intended for the presentation of his wishes. Lasting 1 minute 30, the sequence was posted on December 31 on social networks. “2022 will be a brilliant and luminous year, a year which will strengthen our projects, which will open up new perspectives and embrace the future”, promises the mayor, resolutely confident.
In Thionville, Pierre Cuny opted for the same format: five minutes of an intervention in a sweater-shirt shot between the walls of the third-place Puzzle, put online from December 30 and concluded with this famous aphorism of the philosopher Henri Bergson: “The future is not what will happen, but what we are going to do with it” … “But I would not have made the same video if the ceremonies of vows had been maintained, warns the mayor. To begin with, it probably would have been shorter. “
“A form of suffering”
Pierre Cuny is all the more attached to the ceremonies of the vows since he had reintroduced them into the municipal agenda after they were put under cover by Anne Grommerch in the mid-2010s. It was then a strong trend in many municipalities of the country, in reaction to the drop in state endowments voted under the presidency of François Hollande. “A sudden drop,” recalls the elected LR. Who is committed, in his words, to reduce the budget, “the last ceremonies that I have had to cost around 8,000 euros”. For him, the expense is justified. In particular for the ceremony specific to the staff of the City and the agglomeration. “It is an important moment of conviviality, but also to share a political impetus. We need this strong bond. “
Wishes 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣
Mr. Pierre Cuny, Mayor of Thionville and President of the Portes de France Thionville Agglomeration Community, sends you his best wishes for the New Year.
???? https://t.co/R42iQF2KN7#Thionville #Wishes #LargeProjects # Thionville2030 #2022 #New Year
– City of Thionville (@VilleThionville) December 30, 2021
As such, Pierre Cuny had planned at the beginning of the week to make “the tour of the offices” for two days in order to greet each other. Proof that videos and social networks are not enough. “The crisis has accelerated the digital transition, but face-to-face is essential. We see it during municipal councils which take place in video, there is not the same implication. And I say it even for the opposition! “No wishes this year again, and a” distancing “which for two years has been increasing over time. “Reason why it made me so happy to campaign during the departmental elections (the ticket he formed with Brigitte Schneider on the Thionville-Terville canton was elected last June, editor’s note), I was finally able to come back in the field ! By comparison, I pity the mayors elected for the first time in 2020. They are missing something. “
This observation, Jean-Marie Mizzon shares. Senator of Moselle, the centrist, former mayor of Basse-Ham, chairs the Association of rural mayors of the department. To hear him, the cancellation of the vows ceremonies hollow indeed “a real lack”. “All the municipalities did not organize one, it concerned perhaps only one of them in two, but it was a moment which allowed the mayors to take stock of the past year and ‘address the perspectives. It was, also, a real time of exchange with the population and an opportunity to thank what we call the “living forces”, the volunteers, the associations… In the rural communes, they are them who carry cultural life. “It is penalizing for the new mayors, who need this contact, this exchange, this proximity”, approves Jean-Marie Mizzon. Before raising another difficulty: relations between elected officials. “Often, the greeting ceremonies make it possible to invite colleagues from neighboring municipalities, in particular within an interco. These moments of exchange allow us to get to know each other more quickly. However, we work better with people we know. “The Covid, on the contrary, contributes to the distance. Just like this scene reported by the senator from Moselle: “A mayor told me about this meeting of the Scot (joint union of territorial coherence, editor’s note) of Val de Rosselle in which she participated for the first time:” On arriving , I didn’t know anyone… ”She felt like a stranger. For the new mayors, this results in a form of suffering. They were installed when everything was changing… ”
Sequins and stopgap
For others, such as François Grosdidier deprived of the exercise for the second time since taking power in Metz, the abolition of vows ceremonies also takes away an opportunity to assert a style, a signature, an identity. “These ceremonies are the event that any communicator apprehends during the year. Generally, we start working on it in September. The beginning of the reflection concerns the message that the mayor wishes to send. The whole team is mobilized, we collaborate with the cabinet, the protocol department when there is one, the technical departments, the green spaces department … When it’s over, we blow a big blow, there is relief ” , testifies a former professional of the sector. According to her, the ceremonies of vows had become “more and more important in terms of events” before the arrival of the virus. “The desire was to stand out,” she adds, given that the guests, as a rule, jump from one evening to another throughout the month of January and that they are therefore in a situation. to be able to compare… “You have to bring a ‘more’, to be able to put glitter in all that”, and especially cross your fingers to avoid the misstep. “The boss of a large local company that we would forget to invite, it would go badly …”
???? Mr. Mayor of #VilledeMetz and President of@EuroMetroMetz, @GrosdidierMetz, gives a 2022 back-to-school press conference at the Metz Town Hall.
???? [DIRECT] to find here:https://t.co/FoSZKZvqjQ#Metz #VilledeMetz #Eurometropole pic.twitter.com/raExolYhTB– City of Metz (@MairiedeMetz) January 7, 2022
“It is in any case the opportunity to meet different people, to confront other worlds, other cultures”, observes Gabriel Giacometti, director of the Claude-Bernard clinic in Metz (see page 5) and as such requested for many ceremonies in the past. “Not even being able to meet in front of a drink reminds us how extraordinary what we are going through”, regrets the manager, who himself organized such a meeting internally. “It’s a form of ritual and I attach a lot of importance to it because nothing can replace the tactile relationship. ”Instead, this year,“ we have planned a film with the doctors, caregivers, clinic staff ”. A stopgap, as in the political sphere. And it’s not (still) over. Come on, happy new year anyway!
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