The “automatic resignation” of the five municipal councilors from the list “Puylaurens finished citizen” unsuccessful candidates in the last municipal elections and who formed the opposition group within the municipal council has been confirmed by the administrative court of appeal of Toulouse .

This summer, these elected officials had appealed against this decision of the administrative court of Toulouse seized by the mayor Jean-Louis Hormière. They are the head of the list Michel Barthas, the former mayor Patricia Rosenthal, Corinne Ribes, Malvina Caracas and Alain Amalric.
A rare decision which is based on an article of the General Code of Territorial Collectivities which provides that “any member of a municipal council who, without valid excuse, has refused to fulfill one of the functions devolved by the laws, is declared to have resigned by the Administrative Court “.

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Tarn: the five elected opposition members of the Puylaurens municipal council have been automatically resigned

And if the mayor took legal action, it is because the five elected officials refused to act as assessors in the polling stations during the legislative elections last June. Their refusal to participate in this election was linked to an “incident created by the mayor”, according to them, during the second round of presidential elections on April 24. “Indeed, after having allocated a place to Michel Barthas in the same office as him, the mayor asked him not to come into contact with the voters and made slanderous remarks to meet him”, affirmed the elected officials in a joint press release. . “He told me that I was influencing the voters and put me in a corner,” confides Michel Barthas. Out of “solidarity”, the four other elected officials decided to leave the polling stations after having “ensured that their presence was not essential for the rest of the ballot”. And before the legislative elections, they were part of the municipal council that they could not ensure the holding of the polling stations under these conditions.

The Administrative Court of Appeal noted that “this incident was related in a vague manner by the parties involved, that it was of an isolated nature, that it concerned four of the five municipal councilors indirectly, and that the refusal to ”to exercise the functions of assessor had been reiterated several weeks after this event of April 24, 2022. For these reasons, the municipal councilors could not be regarded as presenting a valid excuse likely to justify their refusal to exercise the function of assessor. It is therefore right that the administrative court of Toulouse had declared them to have resigned automatically at the request of the mayor of Puylaurens”.

“If you contradict the mayor, he will eliminate you”

“Indeed, our appeal was rejected. The court chose to stick to the strict application of the law. We respect this decision and we understand it”, indicates Michel Barthas who specifies however that “the public rapporteur pointed out a certain number of inconsistencies in the file of the municipality, insisting in particular on the fact that members of the majority had also been absent on polling day and should also have been automatically resigned, including some who offered excuses that could be dismissed as invalid under the law. “Or that the number of elected officials present to hold the offices was largely sufficient in view of what the law provides, specifying that we were not a priority since they were arranged at the bottom in the order of the table”, continues the elected resigned adding that “what this behavior of the mayor shows is that if you contradict him, if you bother him he eliminates you. »
Five other elected officials from the “Puylaurens developed citizens” list will therefore join the municipal council. “We bring them our support and wish them good luck,” says Michel Barthas.