Our members Vincent Chauvet and Jean-Noël Verfaillie were respectively re-elected and elected for the first time as Mayor for Autun and Marly during the second round of the French municipal elections.
Vincent Chauvet was re-elected with 53% of the vote, which also is his first election victory as head of the list: he succeeded the previous Mayor during the last mandate. Turnout for this second round was up, after it was delayed due to the Corona-virus outbreak. During that difficult period Chauvet explained what he did for his city and citizens. As our member, he sits on the Green Deal Working Group while also being our coordinator for the Environment, Climate Change and Energy Commission. Before becoming a member Chauvet also joined us as a Young Elected Politician (YEP) and participated in the EU Regions Week in 2019, discussing the future of EU and the role of regions and cities in it.
His first reaction after winning re-election was focused on the road ahead:
Let’s get to work. We have a great responsibility and there are many challenges, for instance with this sanitary crisis which is still not over, and especially with this economic crisis that is coming. In our first days of this new mandate, our objective will be to save this touristic season
Jean-Noël Verfaillie was elected Mayor of Marly for the first time with 53.5% of the vote. He has been with our group since the previous mandate, now sitting on the Environment, Climate Change and Energy Commission (ENVE) as well as the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy. Verfaillie was part of the European Committee of the Regions official delegation to COP25 in Madrid as the then Vice-Chair of ENVE, and takes a keen interest in reconversion as his region is a former industrial stronghold.
It’s a big moment. We have this feeling of responsibility now, a city of 12,000 inhabitants to manage. It has been a long time working towards this for us
Both Mayors join the other French Mayors in our group, who were elected in the first round of the French municipal elections: our President and Mayor of Saint Omer François Decoster, Cécilie Gallien, Thibaud Guignard, Jean-François Barnier and Xavier Priollaud.
