“Insurance is necessary to preserve democracy” warns the first deputy of the municipality of Mont-Saint-Martin in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Patrice Marini. “Without insurance, we would be required to close schools, daycare centers, eliminate transportation, our social merchant could not be delivered if our vehicles are no longer insured”specify the selected one before warning: “we would be in a dead city situation”.
Termination and radio noise weakness
To sound the alarm, this town of 8,300 people also organized a Ghost Town Day on June 11. No municipal services worked. From 1 July 2024, Mont-Saint-Martin will no longer have insurance. “We had a three-year insurance contract with Groupama, which insured us until the end of 2024”, explains Patrice Marini. But in June 2023, the urban violence that broke out in France after Nahel’s death greatly affected the small town. Nine public buildings were affected, including the town hall which was ransacked, a school which was set on fire and a special education and home care service (Sessad) intended for autistic children was completely destroyed. “At the beginning of August, we received a letter from our insurance company, Groupama, informing us that we would no longer be insured from January 1, 2024.”, says the councillor.
The municipality is negotiating a postponement until 1 July 2024, but today its back is against the wall. “We did not find insurance for three reasons: functional protection [NDLR : la protection des élus]protection of the car fleet as well as municipal heritage and buildings”details Patrice Marini. “Nobody answered!”he regrets.
On the other side of the country, on the island of Noirmoutier in the Vendée, Patrice Aubernon faces the same questions, with the same concerns. He is the mayor of the town of La Guérinière. His insurance company no longer wants to work with local communities. The municipality was therefore forced to look for new partners, but the preservation of the buildings still has not found a buyer. “No insurance responded to the offer”, the elected representative is alarmed. He called in a mediator to find other solutions, but the offers were far beyond the municipality’s capabilities. “Our contract did not go from single or double, but from 11,000 euros to 55,000 euros for the same guarantees”, the mayor chokes.
