Freyming

Pierre Lang has been the mayor of Freyming-Merlebach for over 30 years, but his first term dates back 43 years. He is preparing to retire from politics at the age of 79. This means that he has spent a little over half of his life as an elected official on the municipal council of Freyming-Merlebach.

“Honestly, the first years didn’t excite me much, because being an opposition councilor is not a great passion. I was very occupied with my medical analysis laboratory, and then I got into it during the second term when I led my own list for the elections and almost won. In fact, there were four lists. Three left-wing majority lists, Socialist Party, Communist Party, and Green Party, and me leading a center-right list. On the night of the first round, while the incumbent mayor was convinced of a landslide victory after the first round, he had 45% of the votes and I had 44%. In the second round, he won, but I received 48% of the votes, which was an excellent score for a first-time opponent. So that really boosted my morale.”

“I am against setting limits. Fortunately, we have former mayors to sometimes take care of small towns or villages where it can be difficult to find elected officials. And because it is a function that is not only honorary but actually very demanding and requires sacrificing a part of one’s personal life. As long as mayors are competent and capable of managing, I don’t see any reason to limit their term or activities. Just like it wasn’t a good idea to limit the accumulation of jobs and functions between deputies and mayors.”

“I’m not sure it has fundamentally changed. We regularly see in newspaper articles that elected officials are sometimes mistreated by their constituents or the population. No, I haven’t noticed any difference. However, social media has changed a lot in terms of spreading false rumors, fake news, etc. But we shouldn’t give it more importance than that. And if a few people misbehave on social media and say silly things, either we ignore them, treat them with contempt, or issue a clarification.”

(Source: Interview with Pierre Lang conducted by France Bleu Lorraine Nord)