Politics. The 38th Congress of the National Association of Mountain Elected Officials was held at Lévézou on 20 and 21 October, where 500 elected officials discussed various “specific matters”, including predation, low-carbon mobility or medical desertification.
For two days in Pont-de-Salars, the members of the National Association of Mountain Elected Officials (ANEM) preferred to talk about “specifics” rather than problems. Published on 9 January 1985, it is in this sense that the Mountain Law recognizes the right to diversity and the need to adopt general provisions for the special conditions of almost 25% of the territory, including 258 (out of 285) Aveyron communes. This is how Anem was born. There were 500 elected representatives on October 20 and 21 to discuss the future of spas, the goal of achieving “zero net artificialization” (ZAN) of land by 2050, solutions for carbon-free mobility, access to care, always through the prism of the mountain. Participants also visited the Bage dam and its pumping station, the Pont-de-Salar sports facilities and inaugurated the multi-operator 4G mobile “newdeal” site.
In addition to Carole Delga, who opened the debates, interventions by Arnaud Viala, president of the department, three ministers were also present, in one way or another. Caroline Cayeux, ministerial delegate in charge of local authorities, whose plane left the runway at Orly on Thursday evening, Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo, ministerial delegate in charge of territorial organization and health professionals, blocked by a problem with planes and present by video conference, and Dominique Faure, minister of foreign affairs with responsibility for rural areas. Agriculture Ministers Marc Fesneau and Transport Minister Clément Beaune also participated in remote roundtables whose core work was in Pont-de-Salars, partly to pay tribute to Jean Briane, figure of Aveyron politics, who died in 2021 at the age of 91, and who was a of the first presidents of Anem.
Anem caught the news
If agriculture was the biggest absentee from the round tables, “the minister of agriculture should follow up to ask the government to downgrade the wolf or the bear”, emphasized the new president of Anem, Pascale Boyer, deputy of the Hautes-Alpes, who succeeded Jeanine Dubié, MP for Hautes-Pyrénées, which was not re-elected during these two days. The first warnings from Anem’s elected representatives concern priority measures to limit further energy costs in mountain areas and the need to set up a new model for calculating the price of electricity, which is related to the price of gas. . Opening the debates, Caroline Fayeux assured that “the State will be by your side” in this context “of a sharp increase in the price of energy, materials, inflation, which has an even greater impact on the mountains and those who live there”. “A differentiated policy to meet specific needs” should go through regional nature parks and Natura 2000 areas to deal with these new restrictions. “We must develop the energy mix, as is the case here, and at the same time preserve nuclear power in order to have real energy sovereignty”, emphasized Pascale Boyer.
Solutions for our territories
In addition to access to quality care in the mountains, which also motivates requests from Anem elected officials or the development of low-carbon mobility, another proposal calls for a revision of the mandatory transfer of water and sanitation competence in the local communities of the municipalities. and to maintain this optional competence.
“It was very interesting to see that the problem of rural areas and mountains is common to several geographies, which makes projects more difficult to implement,” explained the deputy of the third constituency of Aveyron, Jean-François Rousset. These solutions must be used. to these territories it is a common good to be shared. Like the chairman of the La Poste group, which, in addition to connecting the territory, must evolve with the times and add new services, such as the delivery of medicine, for example. to us to work in this direction, especially on the issue of medical desertification.”
Fight medial deserts
Senator Jean-Claude Anglars, member of Anem’s steering committee, presented the departmental example in particular during the round table conference regarding the recruitment of doctors. A day earlier, the Senate passed the bill aimed at professionalizing interns in general medicine and combating medical deserts, with a 4th year internship for general practitioners who want to practice as a priority in under-resourced areas, in a private practice or in a nursing home. These junior doctors will be remunerated on a fee-for-service basis like full-time liberal doctors. Hoping to deploy 4,000 new doctors each year to under-resourced areas, the aim is that after a year of practical training, some of these new doctors will choose to settle permanently.