Pia Imbs, the unlabeled mayor of the small town of Holtzzheim, was elected on Wednesday to the presidency of the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg. She notably benefited from the support of the new ecological mayor of the Alsatian capital, Jeanne Barseghian.
Pia Imbs, 60, was elected in the first ballot to head the Eurometropolis, which brings together 33 municipalities and represents almost half a million inhabitants. It gathered 59 votes out of 95 voters, against 36 to its only opponent, Catherine Graef-Eckert (DVD), the mayor of Lingolsheim. She takes over from the socialist Robert Herrmann at the head of the Eurometropolis, which was previously called Strasbourg Urban Community (CUS).
A first "in the history of our intercommunal"
Jeanne Barseghian was elected deputy president of the Eurometropolis, and Danielle Dambach, ecological mayor of Schiltigheim, second vice-president. Together, the three women announced last week that they would join forces to carry the idea of collegial governance with a roadmap focused on the climate challenge.
Pia Imbs, lecturer specializing in management and human resources, welcomed his election with "a lot of pride, determination, humility and emotion". "For the first time in the history of our intermunicipal co-operation, it is a mayor of a second-crown municipality who has taken over the presidency," she said.
Pia Imbs was also delighted that "for the first time [...] the question of the presidency was not resolved on a Strasbourg table before the second round of the municipal elections".
Ecology "is compatible with economic development"
Regarding the collegial direction that she wishes to embody with Jeanne Barseghian and Danielle Dambach, Pia Imbs estimated that “the mayor of Strasbourg, city of 480,000 inhabitants, the mayor of Schiltigheim, 32,000 inhabitants, and the mayor of Holtzheim, 3,600 inhabitants, take the same look at our territory, at the challenges to be met, at the meaning of our projects. "
"Together we will demonstrate that the ecological transition is compatible with economic development," she added. "We must enter together into an era that will make climate emergency the central matrix of our public policies in the Eurometropolis," said Pia Imbs again.
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