Election of the President of Agglo Agen: two local political figures show their support

The election of the new president of the agglomeration of Agen will take place Thursday evening. Two “veterans” come out of their reserve. Christian Dézalos supports Laurent Bruneau’s candidacy and Henri Tandonnet supports Olivier Grima. They explain why.

“I respect Olivier Grima, but I allow myself to advise him to withdraw his candidacy.” At the dawn of the election of a new president of the agglomeration of Agen, this Thursday, at the town hall of Agen, Christian Dézalos enters the arena. Three men are candidates to lead this public inter-municipal cooperation establishment (EPCI) consisting of 44 communes and over 100,000 inhabitants: Laurent Bruneau, the new mayor of Agen, Michaël Fargues, an opposition elected official from Agen and a teammate of Sébastien Delbosq (RN), and Olivier Grima, the current vice-president and former mayor of Castelculier.

Elected for five terms in Boé, three as mayor, with 31 years of intercommunality under his belt (1989-2020), including 22 years as vice-president, Christian Dézalos, a leftist, supporter of Laurent Bruneau, believes that this election “poses a major risk of paralysis”. He believes that the candidacies of Messrs. Fargues and Grima are motivated by political considerations. “For them, it is about weakening the legitimacy of the new mayor of Agen.”

In 2014, Christian Dézalos voted against the mutualization of administrative services. The vote on the deliberation was tight: 31 votes for, 29 votes against, and 4 blank ballots. “This decision implied that the president of the agglomeration would be the mayor of Agen at the time, Jean Dionis. Do you believe today that Laurent Bruneau would accept, if he were not elected president of the Agglo, to have no authority over the city of Agen’s service agents? No, of course. He would then ask for a separation. This would result in an imbroglio and guaranteed paralysis for a large part of this term.”

“This is not full-time president”

This is not the vision of Henri Tandonnet. After seven terms as mayor of Moirax, the first vice-president of Agglo Agen has hung up his scarf. He has recently sent a letter to the mayors of the agglomeration to encourage them to vote for Olivier Grima. He does not share the approach of Laurent Bruneau, who, in his opinion, wishes to call into question the delegations of public service for the management of transport, water, sanitation, etc. “Beyond the exorbitant cost of terminating these contracts (at least 70 million euros in severance payments to be made to the delegates), this would mean recruiting hundreds of agents to take back these skills. The operation of an agglomeration involves an explosion in payroll costs.”

He therefore invites community councilors – there are 85 of them – to opt for “a candidate of convictions and not contradictions.” He sees in Olivier Grima the best defender of increasing the number of stops in Agen in the LGV file, the candidacy of the EPR2 of Golfech and its envisaged 10,000 jobs, and the extension of the TAG II. Finally, mutualization is a necessity for him. “Olivier Grima will know how to work with the mayor of Agen while respecting the existing distributions. He will be a full-time president and will not discover, at the same time, the operation of a city of 32,000 inhabitants.”