Essential
One month after his success at the polls, a meeting with a mayor still with his head in the clouds but his feet firmly on the ground. The first, those he calls “quick sugars.” The everyday ones.
On the fourth floor of the Rodez town hall, the office still smells new. On the left wall, the large Paris Olympic Games poster, the official one, the one seen everywhere last summer. To the right, a framed jersey of the French team, signed by all players. And then, between the two, a poster about aligot, a wink from the heart of an Aubracian who never forgets where he comes from. Stéphane Mazars has taken possession of the place in his own way. Discreetly, without ostentation, and with a happiness that is easily seen.
He left his Parisian offices as a deputy, put nine years of National Assembly in boxes, and settled here, facing the city he now governs. He does not yet have an assistant. This seemingly trivial detail says something true about these first weeks: before acting, launching projects, one must surround oneself. Like a coach building his team. The recruitment has started, a chief of staff is expected. In the meantime, Mazars is discovering, probing, organizing. With each passing day, he realizes the implications of this office. And he assumes it, with that quiet serenity that has always been his trademark. In the Aveyron style, you could say, when some would like everything to go faster…
Recruitment, halls, evening with the agents
In this state of mind, we found him, thirty days after a victory that many did not see coming. What does he remember? What has he discovered? Where do these promises sown throughout the campaign stand now? “We are still a bit on cloud nine, we must admit,” he says. “People are very benevolent. But we know very well that all of this will last as long as it lasts. Afterwards, we will have to implement the program.” Not to mention that in recent days, a new chapter has opened: Stéphane Mazars was elected president of the Agglomeration. Mayor and president, the double cap that he was waiting for, which now gives him an action capacity over a larger territory. Two seats, two agendas, two stacks of files.
The most urgent? As during the campaign, he found an expression for them: “quick sugars.” Not grandiose projects brandished as trophies, but concrete and expected measures that show that something has changed. A month after the election, two additional municipal police positions are being recruited. Accessibility to the halls, neglected by the previous team, has been requested from the technical services. The market hall merchants were received, listened to, their concerns noted, especially about the summer heat… And then, there was the big evening of the agents at the town hall: nearly 380 people gathered for the first time to meet a new team. “It allowed us to truly grasp what the city’s community represents.” Everyone left “with a smile.”
But not all sugars dissolve as easily. The return of the market to Place de la Cité, a strong image of the campaign, a symbol of the old Rodez, will take some time: the merchants themselves ask not to rush. Mazars wants to think on the scale of the three places, Cité, Bourg, and town hall, to develop a coherent overall plan. The same goes for the cathedral. Reigniting its spotlights was the most charged promise of Ruthenois affection, the simplest in appearance. “I want to do it quickly,” he assures. Before the summer and the festivities for the 500 years of the bell tower? To be continued.
The inventory
Then there are things that even the best campaigns cannot anticipate. The files discovered only once seated in the chair, when the services speak and the archives open… “Even if it’s the fault of my predecessors, it’s up to me to find the solutions. Because today, no one blames me, but tomorrow, they will,” he confides. Quite possibly right. All these files were urgent in the first days. Next will come the implementation of ideas, the program. The team has no shortage of them. The train station area to reinvent. The episcopal palace that will attract visitors and deserves a real connection with the old town. The quadrilateral, finally under construction. The university, the students, the city stadium, the green strip along the boulevard. Projects pile up, carried by a team eager to move forward. “We need to calm them down,” he smiles. Governing takes time. Executing, even more so in the public service than elsewhere…
While the major projects get underway, it’s a more immediate reality that imposes itself on him on the streets. “What is most often brought to my attention these days? Traffic.” The traffic jams at the entrance and exit of Rodez have become, in a few years, a daily source of irritation. A sore point that the previous team “refused to acknowledge,” which Mazars has included in his program and intends to “address.”
He has asked the services for a complete overview: why this new roundabout on Tarayre avenue, more than ever out of breath? Why the one a bit further on, on Toulouse avenue? Why this Victor-Hugo avenue, these discontinuous bike lanes? These traffic lights not really coordinated on the Place d’Armes? Or even this project of making Saint-Cyrice street two-way, announced but never carried out? “Honestly, I don’t understand anything about traffic in Rodez… we will look into this very closely and quickly. The same goes for parking,” he confesses.
This is what the first month of Stéphane Mazars at the Rodez town hall looks like. A man still a little on cloud nine, but who knows exactly where the bottlenecks of the years to come are…
