Mayor puts town's buildings up for sale

Three public buildings in Frontignan were put up for sale on Friday, September 1, in protest at government cuts, as well as the freezing of 'assisted jobs' subsidies.

Mayor Pierre Bouldoire put the 19th-century town hall, the école Marcel-Pagnol and the municipal cinema building up for sale - with a total asking price of €2.5million, the same amount as the estimated cut in government grants for the town over the next five years.

The town had already taken a €1.7million hit since 2014, he said.

For sale banners were placed on the buildings, complete with fake estate agents' details for "Jupiter et Fils", and "SCI Philippe", thinly veiled references to President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

A telephone number listed on the banners was real, however. It was the official mobile telephone number of the town's République En Marche MP Nicolas Démoulin - but local newspaper L'Independent reports a voicemail message tells any callers the phone is no longer in use.

Symbolic ads were also posted on the Le Bon Coin website - and were taken down later the same day.

Mr Bouldoire told AFP: "I wanted to show that the policy of the government would have effects on the public services."

He said that 33 jobs will be lost due to the freezing of the assisted jobs grants. "For the most part, these jobs are in schools," Mr Bouldoire said.