In Kourou, French Guiana, a public finance deficit of 17.7 million euros weighs on the municipal election campaign despite a budgetary recovery in 2015. The city, reliant on the space industry, faces demographic decline and high unemployment. Seven lists are competing to succeed Mayor François Ringuet.
Kourou, the space city in French Guiana, is in the midst of an intense electoral battle for the municipal elections, with seven candidate lists in the first round, a record in the department ahead of Cayenne, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, and Matoury. This municipality, led for two terms by François Ringuet (divers droite, ex-Horizons), is experiencing an end-of-reign period marked by economic and demographic challenges.
Since its placement under budgetary recovery in 2015, Kourou has accumulated a deficit of 17.7 million euros. The sale of assets has left the municipality without room to maneuver to counter the decline, with a loss of 2,000 inhabitants between 2016 and 2022 according to Insee, and an unemployment rate of 26.1% in 2022. Jean-Etienne Antoinette, former mayor (divers gauche, 1996-2014) and candidate again after his 2020 defeat, criticizes this situation as “the failure of the municipal policy of the last twelve years.”
The dependence on the space industry, the economic pillar since the 1960s, partly explains these difficulties. It generates 1,500 direct jobs and 9,000 indirect ones, but activity declined between 2021 and 2024 due to the European launcher crisis. A rebound is underway with seven launches in 2025 and about ten planned for 2026, though economic diversification remains a major challenge for the city.