Ten French regional presidents have published a tribune opposing a bill to create a unique Alsace collectivity, effectively removing it from the Grand Est region. The text is set for review by the National Assembly on April 7. The signatories denounce it as a clientelist move meeting far-right demands.
In a tribune published in La Tribune on Sunday, ten regional presidents, including Franck Leroy of Grand Est, Carole Delga of Occitanie, and Valérie Pécresse of Île-de-France, describe the bill from the Ensemble pour la République group as an "institutional, political, and historical mistake".
Set for National Assembly review on April 7, the bill proposes a "unique Alsace collectivity" a decade after the regional mergers under François Hollande. The signatories say it perfectly matches "far-right demands" to dismantle regions and question its timing amid unprecedented economic, climate, and geopolitical crises.
"We must stitch back together rather than tear apart, unite rather than dismember, federate rather than divide," they write, warning it will spur other local lobbies for autonomy. They highlight a new tax in the bill to fund the transition, undermining claims of savings.
At a Paris event on Thursday marking ten years of the new regions, Carole Delga questioned the urgency of altering the institutional "layer cake," while Franck Leroy called the project "built on sand" without an impact study. The presidents urge the government to "blow the whistle on this recess".
