The scene dates back to November 2003, but remains imprinted in the memory of Benoît Savy: the current mayor of Montrollet (Charente), 312 inhabitants, on the border of the Limousin bocage, is then back in the region after several years of 'absence. One evening he opens his door to a stranger with white hair and a lively look who presents himself as a member of the municipal council. "His accent was pronounced, I couldn't believe it, still laughs at the aile. The first elected official to welcome me, on my return to the country, was a Briton! "
The "Columbia", seated opposite him in the town hall of Montrollet, seventeen years later, is called Colin Parfitt. In 2001, The world had previously met this former London university professor, one of the first Englishmen to become a city councilor in France. A possibility open to any European resident, that year, following the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.
This engagement in local life is however brought to disappear, on January 31, with the formalization of Brexit: the 766 local elected representatives of British nationality, and with them all the expatriate English citizens, may neither vote nor stand as candidates in municipal elections. In Charente, where 6,300 British nationals live, 70 municipal councilors are concerned.
"The phenomenon is symptomatic of a disconnect between the major political issues and the life of small municipalities, deplores Benoît Savy. We did not expect the exit from the United Kingdom, which is shaking up the European Union (EU), arrives at the table of a Charente limousine city council. "
In Montrollet, Colin Parfitt gave way to another Englishman, Norman Cox, at the 2014 municipal elections. His successor asked to obtain dual nationality at the start of 2018, hoping to be able to participate in the 2020 elections despite the uncertainty of Brexit. "Eighteen months later, I have no answer, laments the craftsman who arrived in Charente at the end of the 1990s. I'm afraid that within a few weeks, I won't be able to put my name on the list. "
"My life is here"
40 kilometers further west, in another town hall, the concern is the same. "The English here, they don't like" Bojo "too much (Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister) ", warns Guy Cadet, mayor of Nieuil, 932 inhabitants and an English municipal councilor, Jane Corbett. “In a polycultural society, mediation with the English is inevitable. His presence has done us great service ”, launches, laudatory, the elected 77-year-old. In the event of conflict, misunderstanding between neighbors or with the administration, the English elected officials often played the role of intermediary with the British families, of which about forty are settled in Nieuil.
