From left to right, bottom to top: Jérémy Zorzer, Gilles Wobedo, Patrick Peron and Vincent Schweitzer. Photos DR
The merger of the agglomeration communities of Val de Fensch and Portes de France-Thionville on January 1, 2026? They don’t want to believe it, convinced that it has little benefit and many disadvantages. Meeting with several opponents of the project.
1. Patrick Peron, mayor of Algrange
He is one of the elected officials who spoke out against the widening of the perimeter during the Val de Fensch urban council meeting on June 22. Patrick Peron, mayor (PCF) of Algrange, explains his position. “We were talking about this merger but it was never included on the agenda of this mandate, it was invited like a hair in the soup. Of course, there were explanatory meetings but we managed to convince ourselves that it was not going to bring any more in terms of services to the population. The only thing we will have more is local taxes, that’s a certainty! The increase in property tax will be real and not negligible, we would go from simple to double,” says the elected official.
He notes “no structuring project, no additional service and worse, no consultation with the population either”. A “negligence” that cannot be explained since when the operation of household waste was modified with the establishment of an incentive tax, public discussions were organized in the towns of the urban community. So, according to him, the same method should have been applied to a subject which involves the future of the inhabitants.
Another source of concern for the elected official: the management of the joint water and sanitation union of Fontoy Vallée de la Fensch. He fears its disappearance in favor of a public service delegation with the transition from a majority of left-wing elected officials (Val de Fensch) to a right-wing majority (Portes de France-Thionville). And other worrying questions arise about personnel management, the decentralization of services, the loss of proximity and the weight of each community in the balance. Thionville will swallow up the Val de Fensch: the mayor of Algrange is convinced of this and is not the only one in this case. “Tomorrow, the vision of Val de Fensch will be zero. » For the moment, he has not set a date for deliberating within his municipal council. “The prefect will give the start of the deliberations in council,” he slips.
2. Jérémy Zorzer, CGT manager of civil service agents
“All mergers have led to reshuffles and job cuts. » Jérémy Zorzer, CGT trade unionist, draws on this observation to emphasize that creating a single entity will not improve the condition of territorial agents. For the moment, “some staff are in favor of it because they think the compensation plan is more interesting”. A preconceived idea, according to him. We need to look further: think about mutual insurance coverage and career development. “The absorption of skills will lead to a greater number of personnel for the same organization. However, when it comes to career development, a community must respect quotas. We will find ourselves with a crowd of civil servants in a funnel,” explains the trade unionist.
This merger also raises the question of the mobility of technical staff who will be taken to more distant positions. Jérémy Zorzer also fears a gap between the places of governance and the real needs on the ground, due to the distance of services. “We will end up with services that will be less adapted (in terms of staffing in particular) and agents who will no longer be able to do so,” he warns. He has already noted an increase in retirements and voluntary departures from intermunicipalities and assures that this will only increase within a large urban area. “The merger is the destruction of the public service! »
3. Gilles Wobedo, opposition elected official in Hayange
He is against. The only point in common perhaps with the mayor of his town, Fabien Engelmann. This is also one of the reasons which pushed Gilles Wobedo, opposition elected official at Hayange town hall, to claim his rejection of the project, so as not to leave a clear space for the National Rally. “I don’t want to leave the RN alone in this fight. Guaranteeing the proximity of public services is the identity of the left,” underlines the former member of La France Insoumise, who remains attached to the values of his former party.
He is convinced, “the vote of community councilors is not legitimate since moving to a large urban area will improve their personal situation with an increase in their compensation”. So, he decided to act by sending an open letter to the municipal elected officials of the 23 municipalities concerned, “most of whom have nothing to gain from it”. This reminds them “that none of them received the democratic mandate during the 2020 municipal elections to proceed with this merger, that it is the wish of presidents Michel Liebgott and Pierre Cuny and that their individual responsibility as a municipal elected official is committed.”
Gilles Wobedo wants the population to be consulted via a local initiative referendum. “We feel a real fundamental opposition to this project and a lot of resignation which causes distrust towards elected officials. » The acquisition of the building of the former CCI with a view to this merger makes it jump and “shows the control of Pierre Cuny”, even though the Val de Fensch has renovated the headquarters of the agglomeration community, there is little. “If we had all this data in mind, would we have invested so much money? », he asks. He also fears more privatization and fewer public services, with what is more a distancing of citizens from decision-making centers. “I have the impression that we are proceeding in the same way as on the A31Bis, by not taking into account the oppositions. »
4. Vincent Schweitzer, president of the association Usag’ThiFensch
He doesn’t like the method, but that’s not all. It is on a personal basis and with his convictions that Vincent Schweitzer speaks out against this merger. For the moment, the discussion has not been initiated with the other members of the Usag’ThiFensch association which intervenes on mobility issues. For him, the Thionville Fensch Joint Urban Transport Union (Smitu), which brings together elected officials from the two urban communities and a few isolated municipalities, provides proof that it cannot work. Present within the organization’s partners committee, he already sees how things are going. “We are allowed to speak and they make the decisions they want,” he emphasizes. “The merger means starting again with an operation that we already know with the elected officials who sit on Smitu. »
Vincent Schweitzer also draws on his experience as a history and geography teacher. He uses Gérard-François Dumont’s “Big is beautiful” to prove that it’s a bad idea. “We observe that the administrative redistributions are bigger each time and that the effects on the territory are not felt. » He allows himself a comparison with the “länder” (regions) of neighboring Germany, which have a more substantial budget and autonomy. “They make their own laws. »Remains that on a local level, it is certain that a marriage will not serve the interests of Val de Fensch. “We guess that the ascendant will be taken by Portes de France-Thionville,” he slips before formulating a new, central question: “At this scale, will citizens still have a say in decisions? »
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