Faced with several thousand elected members of the Porte de Versailles in Paris for the Congress of the Association of Mayors of France, Emmanuel Macron tried to coax the city officials in a long speech. "I need you", even launched the head of state, who has struggled to convince a less hostile assistance than in previous years.

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At four months of municipal elections, Emmanuel Macron attempted a seduction operation before the Congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), an annual meeting he had shunned last year. "Nothing will happen without you" has even launched the head of the executive facing the city, he wishes to place in the heart of act two of his five years. But if the President of the Republic did not harvest the whistles of elected officials during his grand opening speech Tuesday Porte de Versailles, he did not convince many people.

Meager applause

"I was expecting him to cheer me up, I came away with nothing, I'm disappointed," says the mayor of a small village in Eure disillusioned. In front of elected officials, Emmanuel Macron did not arouse particular enthusiasm. Even when he lists the commitments he has made, such as "the 14,000 fiber optic lines drawn every working day", he gets only meager, polite applause from the audience. Blame it on a feeling of persistent mistrust. "The abolition of the housing tax remains across the throat," said Tuesday François Baroin, the head of the Association of Mayors of France, in small committee. This tax, however compensated, still worries as much. "Will we remove associations, will we close equipment?" asks a mayor of Yvelines who explains that his town "is at the bone". "I do not have the impression to have had answers," she comments, disappointed by the speech of Emmanuel Macron.

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"The contract is filled"

In the room, however, some have noted the calls of the foot of the President. "I feel, at your touch, mayor of the town France," he said in a form of declaration of love to local elected officials. "After all that happened last year, Emmanuel Macron understood that the mayors could be a relay for him," said Caroline Cayeux, Mayor (LR) of Beauvais, supported by the Republic Marche in the upcoming municipal elections . Despite the rather lukewarm reactions, within the government we are satisfied by the sequence. "It was much better than in previous years," says a presidential adviser, before concluding without passion that "the contract is fulfilled".