Thierry Delsol, the newly elected mayor of Mansonville, has entered the race for the September 27 Senate elections in Tarn-et-Garonne, becoming the twelfth candidate. Only eleven candidates ran in the 2020 senatorial elections, so the field has now surpassed that record.
Delsol, a business owner based in Pommevic, wrote to the department's grand électeurs to announce his candidacy. Charlotte Tapie, from Montauban, will serve as his running mate.
Delsol's election as mayor of Mansonville was contested by outgoing mayor Vanessa Escudé before the Toulouse administrative tribunal over irregularities spotted on campaign posters, but her challenge failed.
Barèges Touts Hydroelectric Power
Brigitte Barèges, vice-president of the UDR and also a Senate candidate, used part of her summer break to film herself in front of a hydroelectric dam built in the 1960s. She said the dam dated from a time when people understood that holding back water made sense, both to preserve it for later use, including drinking water, and above all to generate hydroelectric power.
Barèges said there is no cleaner or more natural type of energy than hydroelectric power. With energy taxes set to rise again, she said she regretted that today's environmentalists have failed to grasp that France's mountain ranges are reservoirs that could still be used, as they were in the past, to supply clean and much cheaper energy.
Montauban Councillor Criticizes New Sidewalks
Roadworks have continued through much of the summer in Montauban, including the recent resurfacing of sidewalks on Avenue Charles-de-Gaulle. Jean-Philippe Labarre, a councillor for Nouveau Montauban who lives in the area, walked on the new sidewalks one evening at 7:30 p.m. during a heatwave and was not pleased.
Labarre said he wanted to know who had decided on the sidewalk repair technique, calling it the worst kind of black tar and completely unattractive. He questioned how anyone could choose that color given the heat residents are experiencing, calling the decision absurd and clearly not thought through. He said the technical services department would need to explain itself and that he would raise the issue at an upcoming municipal council meeting.
In Toulouse, by comparison, recently redone sidewalks and roads have used a "shot-blasted" bitumen mixing white gravel and aggregate, a surface that reflects more light than standard black asphalt.
Castelsarrasin Transport Network Anger
Mayor Jean-Philippe Bésiers had tried to reassure users when he announced the elimination of the Tulipe transport network, which retirees in particular used to travel by minibus from the town center to supermarkets in the Artel commercial zone. Bésiers had counted on a transport-on-demand service created by the Terres des Confluences communauté de communes, with support from the region, to take over.
But the on-demand service does not serve the same purpose: it can only connect a rural area to a town center, not provide an intercity route. Local officials secured an exception allowing residents of Gandalou and la Mégère, outlying areas of Castelsarrasin and Moissac, to use the on-demand service. Bésiers still needs to find a solution for angry former Tulipe riders.
Moissac Opposition Gets Its Voice
The opposition's first column appeared on the city of Moissac's website on Friday, August 7, following a ruling by the Toulouse administrative tribunal's interim relief judge in favor of Séverine Laurent, list leader for the Union citoyenne moissagaise in the municipal elections.
The UCM said local democracy had scored some points, but added that much remained to be done, pointing to files that arrive incomplete at municipal committee meetings, political parties having been excluded from the cultural center since 2020, and free public notice boards that have largely disappeared around Moissac. The group said more battles lie ahead.
Separately, left-wing councillors from the group Moissac Fièr.e.s et Solidaires accused Romain Lopez of political and media exploitation of the closure of the hospital's emergency department, which they called an extremely serious issue. They recalled a campaign proposal to create a walk-in medical center open weekday evenings from 8 p.m. to midnight and weekends from 8 a.m. to midnight.
