"I'm going for it. The main thing is that the start of the school year takes place", assures AFP Jean Touzeau, socialist mayor of Lormont, a town of 23.000 inhabitants in the suburbs of Bordeaux.
Since the fire on June 29 at the Condorcet nursery school, the city councilor has embarked on "a race against time". "We are already halfway through the time allotted to rebuild everything. Every day counts", continues the mayor, who "will not move" from his city this summer.
In France, nearly 250 schools were targeted by rioters, including a dozen schools completely destroyed.
Several cities have launched pots to respond to the request of their inhabitants to help finance the work.
This is the case of La Verrière (Yvelines), whose mayor Nicolas Dainville (LR) estimates at "nearly 20 million euros" the damage suffered for two burned schools.
At the start of the school year, the 170 pupils of the Bois de l'Etang elementary school will be transferred to the regional primary school, located 30 minutes away on foot. As for the pupils of the Etang-des-Noës kindergarten, partially burned but unusable, they will be welcomed in another establishment which has remained intact.
"It's mission impossible to rebuild for the start of the school year", recognizes the mayor, who expects two to three years of work and hopes for help from the Region to finance the 150.000 euros needed to transport the students to their host school.
"The daily lives of many students will be turned upside down. Communities will have to find new solutions such as installing prefabricated buildings or mobilizing buses if the canteen has been destroyed", admits Grégoire Ensel, president of the FCPE, the first federation of parents of students. . He fears, however, that "the temporary will drag on for two or three school years".
"Administrative burden"
On July 11, the French Insurance Federation estimated the damage to public buildings in 225 municipalities at around 500 million euros.
In Denain (North), it is still time to assess the costs. In the partially burned theatre, all of the illuminations and the seats are covered with a layer of greasy soot. "The decontamination alone is 500.000 euros", testifies the mayor Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini (PS), welcoming the law on reconstruction adopted on July 20 in Parliament. "This law makes it possible to exonerate a little from the administrative heaviness of public procedures", she assures.
The mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne, Zartoshte Bakhtiari, is more bitter. "The bill for the damage, 2 million euros, is 90% for the city. The State does not help: apart from a few technical measures (...), there was nothing", scans the chosen DVD.
In Coulaines, near Le Mans, the reception of the town hall was set on fire, forcing the mayor Christophe Rouillon to relocate the civil status in the basement and the wedding hall in a leisure center.
“A few weeks of reflection will be necessary to define our need”, indicates the elected PS, who is worried about the level of insurance coverage and a possible increase in the insurance contract in 2024.
"We are the 40th poorest city in France and we don't have much budgetary leeway. The spirit of the law is the rest at zero charge. We hope for total coverage of our expenses", underlines the Sarthois, who also fears to see returning "at full gallop" the image of "working-class suburbs-dangerous suburbs".
Questioned by AFP, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) said to remain "vigilant". "We will check whether the implementing texts are up to the intentions," comments Antoine Homé, co-chairman of the finance committee, who is also worried about the amounts of damage.
"In Montargis (Loiret), it's more than 1,5 million euros. It is obvious that the communities will not be able to finance alone when they are already strangled financially", he recalls, also judging “not at all sure” that the companies can respond to the markets, given the delays and the difficulties of recruitment.