Two days after the new exceptional floods in the center-east of France, the question of compensation is becoming more and more pressing. Faced with this large-scale problem, PS parliamentarians from Ardèche and Loire asked the government to spare local authorities, and in particular their department, the most affected by the floods, from “the drain” envisaged in the 2025 draft budget. “Following the disaster experienced by the people of Ardèche, this drain, if it were to take place, will appear to be totally unfair,” wrote Hervé Saulignac, PS deputy for Ardèche, in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister Michel Barnier, a copy of which AFP obtained this Saturday.
Debates on the budget in the National Assembly regularly mention a possible “effort” – of several billion euros – from local authorities. “I asked the Prime Minister not to make the drain that he planned to make on communities to the tune of five billion euros,” explained the elected official, interviewed Friday evening on Franceinfo. According to MP Hervé Saulignac, Ardèche’s contribution should “be around 8 million euros”, he wrote in his letter to Michel Barnier. However, “the damage, impossible to assess at this stage, will amount to several million euros for modest municipalities since 70% of them have fewer than 1,000 inhabitants.”
The latter will therefore turn to the department, which will already have to finance the cost of the important rescue operations carried out by the firefighters, underlines the elected official, president of the Ardèche departmental council from 2012 to 2017. He therefore asks to place the Ardèche on the list of twenty non-contributing departments, which already include Gard and Lozère, two neighboring departments.
Two PS parliamentarians from the Loire followed the elected official from Ardèche. In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the deputy Pierrick Courbon and the senator Jean-Claude Tissot ask that he “renounce the contribution […] of the order of 16 million euros” envisaged on the revenues of the Loire.
Insurers targeted by the government
Failing to respond positively to the demands of these elected officials, the government turned to insurers. The Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand announced this Saturday on the social network
“I have already mobilized the insurers so that compensation is provided quickly,” published the tenant of Bercy, sharing his thoughts for the “affected residents, businesses, businesses and communities”. Antoine Armand also confirmed that “the recognition of a natural disaster” had been initiated.
The insurer Macif has already announced on Friday an “exceptional assistance system” to help “its members affected by the violent bad weather” in recent days: extension of the claim reporting deadline extended to 30 days, coverage rehousing for ten nights, psychological support… The insurer counted nearly 6,200 claims related to the bad weather in recent days, while floods had already affected several departments last week, including Eure-et-Loir and Seine-et-Marne, in the wake of the Kirk depression.
This Saturday morning, only Gironde was still affected by an orange flood alert. The A47 motorway is completely reopened in both directions between Saint-Etienne and Lyon, according to Bison Futé. The TER line (regional trains) Lyon-Saint-Etienne, the busiest in France, however, remains cut. A partial resumption of traffic is planned for Monday on the Lyon-Givors axis, but the return to normal could take longer in the most affected area, between Givors and Saint-Etienne.