On Monday, in a press release, Jean-Pierre Bosino, the mayor of Montataire, a town of 13,600 inhabitants near Creil (Oise), threatened “to stop paying” for electricity in his town if nothing is done to relieve communities of the price hike, fearing a “fourfold increase” in bills.
“Right now, doing so is impossible. How do I find the missing 1.9 million euros? What service do I close? I stop catering in the schools, I close the town hall three days a week?,” he wondered. Faced with soaring electricity prices on the wholesale market — which exceeded 1,000 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Friday, in contrast to 85 a year ago — the city’s bill could rise in 2023, at the end of the current contract, “from 600,000 euros to 2.5 million euros,” he explained.
“We have no war chest, we must adopt a balanced budget,” he underscored, since French municipalities cannot have a deficit on current accounts. Unlike individuals, “local authorities are subject to market prices from a certain level of budget and staff. Today, this is untenable! We must return to the regulated rate,” he pleaded with AFP. “It is because an essential good was handed over to the Stock Exchange that we are there. The speculation on electricity and gas costs the greatest number but offers big returns to the happy few,” he deplored.
