The municipality, Capa and the State have signed a memorandum of understanding for a large-scale investment in Ajaccian infrastructure. State involvement should be massive and seriously cut off PTIC’s resources. For its part, the CdC considers that it has been excluded
The image was meant to be striking. This Thursday, in the Napoleonic living room of the town hall, the mayor of Ajaccio and president of the Cover, Laurent Marcangeli signed with the prefect Pascal Lelarge a memorandum of understanding on a revival and ecological transition contract (CRTE). An investment program of more than 160 million euros broken down on eight intermunicipal projects.
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“One hundred and sixty million euros in funding: the culmination of several years of work between the city of Ajaccio and the Ajaccio region”, Laurent Marcangeli congratulated himself in a tweet.
A means of emphasizing its ability to work in harmony with the State in order to carry out major projects for the territory, at a time when relations between the Collectivity and the Prefect are at their lowest and when many of the files of the CdC are in distress.
The opportunity also for the mayor of Ajaccio to claim political success, with major projects, which could be largely funded by the state.
How high ?
The prefect Pascal Lelarge does not advance a figure, but on the side of the city, we expect a lot. “The objective is to have project funding that is around 80%”, says Antoine Maestrali, Laurent Marcangeli’s chief of staff. Including a large part of the Transformation and Investment Plan for Corsica (PTIC). Of the 500 million in the PTIC, more than 100 million could be allocated to the Ajaccio territory alone.
“Sprinkling”
A disproportionate envelope?
Three months before the territorial elections, these financing choices inevitably raise questions. “The influence of Ajaccio, just like that of Bastia are key elements”, assures the prefect. “A fifth of the funds while the Capa represents nearly a third of the population of Corsica, that does not seem excessive to me”, judge for his part Antoine Maestrali.
“We cannot be satisfied with the sole demographic criterion”, one reacts in the entourage of the president of the executive Gilles Simeoni. “In rural areas, in the mountains, this is where there is the most important infrastructure backlog”.
More generally, the financing of Capa projects via the PTIC is symptomatic of the place taken by inter-municipal authorities in public policies, but above all of a paradigm shift in the allocation of State funds.
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If the Exceptional Investment Plan (PEI) brought together the State and the local authority in the financing of infrastructures deemed to be structuring on the scale of the island (rail, road infrastructures, etc.), the PTIC makes it possible to supply projects for cities or of intercommunalities.
“The PTIC was supposed to take over from the PEI to complete the upgrading of Corsica’s infrastructure, one gets annoyed on the side of the Collectivity. There, we are sprinkling, without any strategic vision “.
The prefect defends himself and ensures that the selected projects “are structuring for Ajaccio and for Corsica”.
The fact remains that once the Ajaccio and Bastia projects have been financed, if we subtract the 65 million euros already allocated to Figari airport, the envelope will soon no longer weigh very heavily. What will happen to the cases brought by the CoC?
“No loser”
The latter sent the prefect a list of projects worth 150 million euros for road infrastructure, water purification, housing and the railway. “Things thought on the scale of Corsica”, insists a close to the executive. However, at this stage, nothing has yet been finalized.
“We deliberately excluded the Collectivity, whereas that fell within its own competence”, he believes. For his part, the prefect assumes a desire to privilege the inter-municipal level but denies wanting to dismiss the CdC. “What we want to promote is a dual approach. An approach involving agglomerations and inter-municipal authorities.
Then an approach with the CdC on major infrastructures and structuring equipment. So we walk on two legs. We do this with a vision that is as shared as possible with the CdC but especially with the territories “.
Anxious to want to dispel doubts about a potential polarization of projects, the Prefect wants to be reassuring: “We are as concerned as others with the balance of the territories”, he assures. “There can be no loser for Corsica”. No loser, maybe. But a winner, that’s for sure.
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