Michèle Oriol has deplored that municipalities have been handed over to “mayor-caciques” under the guise of decentralization. “We have delivered local populations to petty caciques,” the sociologist Michèle Oriol stated during her appearance on Panel Magik on Monday, May 4, 2026. According to Mrs. Oriol, this situation arose under the cover of decentralization discourse.
“In 1986, we entered into a logic of decentralization. Those who studied in France and saw [François] Mitterrand launch decentralization did not seek to understand the political, social, or institutional context and wanted to do the same in the country. This resulted in mayors and communal section officials who are petty caciques,” Michèle Oriol remarked. She therefore called for breaking the myth of decentralization, emphasizing that “the reconstruction of the State will take place at the center and not at the periphery.”
According to Mrs. Oriol, mayors bear a major responsibility in the worsening of urban risks. “Municipalities are directly involved in the poor decisions made in urban territories because they are the ones who authorize constructions anywhere and profit from them. They are also involved in the mismanagement of waste and public markets,” criticized Michèle Oriol. While communal administrations use the lack of financial resources as a pretext to mask their mismanagement, Mrs. Oriol indicated that some municipalities collect enough to conduct “at least a minimum in the right direction.”
The former head of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Territorial Development (CIAT) pointed out, as evidence, that municipalities “are without oversight.” “They require neither a priori nor a posteriori authorization. There is no control over their accounting or the management of taxpayers’ resources. Order must be restored, and officials must be targeted at each of their respective levels,” Michèle Oriol pleaded.
Beyond the lack of oversight of municipalities, Michèle Oriol raised the issue of the lack of technical skills within city halls, which in some cases prevents them from providing informed technical opinions to donors or international organizations intervening in the communes. This technical support, which municipalities need, could come from the decentralized departments of the State, but the latter do not always have the appropriate human resources, Michèle Oriol concluded.
