The engagement had been no longer in doubt for weeks. Here they are formalized. Saturday morning, December 11, during a press conference organized in Nilvange, Michel Liebgott and Pierre Cuny announced their desire to bring together the communities of Val de Fensch and Portes de France – Thionville by 2026. “We are driving a approach ”, they confirm. The challenge is to constitute an agglomeration of 150,000 inhabitants, a size “relevant” to work on a common project profitable to the northern Moselle.
“If we had been more united and more relevant in the past, we would already be a large community,” admits Michel Liebgott, president of Val de Fensch. Pierre Cuny, he never understood why “we had allowed two agglomerations to be created a few kilometers from each other, while we belong to the same urban unit: twelve municipalities out of the twenty-three that concern us. are conurbated… Together, we have 42,000 jobs, we share the same living area, the same healthcare offer and tomorrow, a high-level bus service that will link our two valleys ”.
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A “story of men”
Certainly, the history of the workers’ valley and that of Thionville, the city of executives and administrations, has knitted past political choices, but today, the presidents of the two towns are no longer there. The rapprochement they propose is “a story of men”, they say in unison. “We are not improvising: we are already united on many subjects, through various unions and structures”, specifies Michel Liebgott. His counterpart nods: “We are complementary. Our skills are the same, our taxation too ”
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Territory logic
For Pierre Cuny, there is a logic and “a reasoning of territory” which prevail. “We need to coordinate our actions and our resources: this is true in terms of health, economic development, mobility, digital technology, higher education…” This amounts to “increasing efficiency”, which is the first objective of this merger cited by Michel Liebgott. The elected Fensch evokes hot issues, such as transport that is slipping and deserves better, “but we do not have a common body allowing us to do so”; the Metzange P + R co-financed by Luxembourg “while ours is not…” Ditto economically: “Today everyone recognizes the dynamics of northern Lorraine, but when investors come to see us, it’s better to have more diversity of land to offer. Another subject, broached by Pierre Cuny: “Tomorrow, the university offer will expand even further in Thionville; you will have to think about student accommodation; think about bringing an offer spread over the territory. “
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We are in perfect agreement on the future governance but it is too early to talk about it.
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Pierre Cuny, mayor of Thionville and president of Portes de France and Michel Liebgott, mayor of Fameck and president of Val de Fensch.
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A more visible and stronger agglomeration
The northern Moselle is this little bit of Lorraine which goes up, it is a fact. “Tomorrow, one and the same agglomeration will allow us to be stronger”, vis-à-vis the Luxembourg neighbor and certainly more visible from Strasbourg or Brussels. “We will be able to mobilize European funds more easily for larger projects”, defend the presidents. Seen from Metz? “I think that the structuring of the north of Lorraine will be viewed favorably …”, augurs Pierre Cuny.
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