At their meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers really wanted to talk about military support for Ukraine, tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, Iran and Latin America. But then the events of the weekend upset the agenda.

The ministers of Foreign Affairs of the European Union met this Monday in Luxembourg to discuss the consequences of the attempted military coup in Russia.

While the meeting was supposed to focus on military support for Ukraine, tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, sanctions on Iran and relations with Latin America, the weekend’s surprising events disrupted the agenda.

Ministers are still grappling with the dramatic 36-hour episode in which Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group mercenary troops rose up against Russian leadership, posing the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s power since he took office in the Kremlin more than 20 years ago. years. years represented.

“The war against Ukraine that Putin started and the monster that Putin created with Wagner … is biting him now. The monster is acting against its creator,” said Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, upon arrival. to the meeting.

“The political system is showing its weaknesses and military might is cracking. This is an important consequence of the war in Ukraine.”

Borrell avoided speculation about Prigozhin’s whereabouts or the possible impact of the failed coup on the course of the war.

“It’s certainly not good for a nuclear power like Russia to enter a period of political instability,” Borrell told reporters.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock remained cautious in her assessment and described the short-lived rebellion as a “domestic power struggle” in which the EU would not get involved.

“With this brutal war of aggression, Russia is destroying, Putin is destroying his own country,” Baerbock said.

Her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, was similarly cautious, saying the international community had yet to see the “full consequences” of the uprising.

“However, these events raise many questions, perhaps more questions than answers,” Colonna said. “At this point, it’s clear that (the events) highlighted the fact that there were internal tensions and even cracks, fractures and weaknesses in the system.”

Meanwhile, Lithuanian Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called on Western allies to strengthen Europe’s eastern flank in response to growing “unpredictability” inside Russia.

“We see how quickly things can develop,” said Landsbergis. “It took a military unit half a day to move 200 kilometers from Moscow. So imagine how quickly they can do that when they cross Belarus and emerge at the Lithuanian border.”

Landsbergis raised questions about the deal, allegedly brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, which prompted Prigozhin to abruptly call off the mutiny and withdraw his troops. Details of the deal were not released, but it is believed that Prigozhin will live in exile somewhere in Belarus while Wagner’s soldiers are pardoned and given the opportunity to enlist in the Russian armed forces.

According to the Lithuanian minister, Lukashenko, who has been in power uninterruptedly since 1994, got involved in the dispute out of self-interest to protect his own political career.

Lukashenko is “so dependent on the Kremlin and if the Kremlin stops supporting him, it means he could end his career prematurely,” Landsbergis said.

The deal is heavily shrouded in secrecy, making it impossible to determine Wagner’s future as a mercenary organization or Prigozhin’s powers. So far, the Kremlin has not announced any changes in Russia’s military leadership, one of Prigozhin’s main demands.

“We don’t need to think about regime change in Russia, and we don’t need to plan for it either. The Russians are perfectly capable of doing it themselves,” Landsbergis said.

“The Russians will solve Russia.”

In an interview with Jovem Pan News’ Jornal da Manhã, history professor Angelo Segrillo says that Russian territory was weakened by the episode

Playback/Jovem Pan News
The history professor and specialist on Russia, Angelo Segrillo, during an interview with Jornal da Manhã

the powers of Wagner paramilitary group withdrawn from Russiaby order of its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who on Saturday 24 unexpectedly announced his withdrawal after challenging the authority of Wladimir Putin while Kyiv demanded progress in the east Ukraine. Since Friday evening, the 23rd, the paramilitary leader began a mutiny with a promise to “liberate the Russian people” by moving his troops to Moscow. On Saturday afternoon, however, he backed down “to avoid a Russian bloodbath,” as he put it. “We are returning to our camps,” he announced. Since the announcement of the mutiny in southwestern Russia, Wagner’s men reached three Russian regions Rostov, Voronezh and Lipetsk and positioned themselves less than 400 km from the capital. Cheered by dozens of residents of Rostov with shouts of “Wagner, Wagner!”, the militants began to leave the region on Saturday evening. By dawn, the area was already completely clear, said the region’s governor, Vasily Golubev. In an interview this Monday, 26th, with the morning paperof the Young Pan NewsProfessor of History and Specialist in Russia at the University of São Paulo (USP) Angelo Segrillo said the Wagner group created an unprecedented divide in Russia. “Until then, Putin had internal control of the situation. Now we have to see how this will affect the morale of both the troops, militarily on the battlefields, and internally among the Russian people,” he explained. According to him, Ukraine won in this episode. “Russia is weakened. However, it remains to be seen whether this will be a serious problem in the long run or just a problem in the future. “This will have a positive effect on Ukraine in practice, both on the battlefield and in politics,” he added.

Watch the USP specialist’s full interview in Russia:

Gone are the days of “forced mergers” of the Quebec government… More than twenty years later, more and more cities are taking the initiative to merge to solve two problems that didn’t exist in the past: inflation and more all things considered labor shortage.

Last autumn, the city of La Pocatière decided to fund a study on the relevance of a merger with six of its neighbors: Saint-Onésime-d’Ixworth, Saint-Pacôme, Saint-Gabriel-Lalemant, Rivière-Ouelle, Saint-Denis – De La Bouteillerie and Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière.

The idea came from the new mayor of La Pocatière, Vincent Bérubé. In early 2022, he visited his neighbors to consult with them. “The goal is to grow better together,” he summarizes. He adds that labor shortages mean that municipalities are now “competing” for the same workforce.

The proposal is surprising given that in the 1990s the city struggled to weather debate over a merger with Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, a project that was eventually rejected. But Mayor Bérubé believes the population has moved on. “It had been done emotionally for people, but now, in 2023, we’re somewhere else. »

Lac-des-Aigles, another much smaller commune in Bas-Saint-Laurent, has also taken steps to merge with its neighboring resort, Saint-Guy.

Lac-des-Aigles has 500 inhabitants; Saint-Guy, 76. For her, it’s an opportunity to grow, but also to stop doing interviews, explains the mayor of the first, Pierre Bossé.

“In five years, Saint-Guy has changed its general manager three times and its mayor three times. At street level, we always have to start over. For employees who drive trucks, there is a lot of work everywhere. And we don’t have the budget to pay them more than we do for the big runs. » 

Since the road director’s retirement eight years ago, Lac-Des-Aigles have not been able to replace him permanently. “We are very small and cannot find the workers we need. »

Together, he hopes, they can offer candidates a better salary. “The idea is to integrate all resources and become a bit more efficient. With the two budgets together we save 10% [du budget]. The file is now in the hands of the municipal commission, which has until July 15 to recommend to the ministry whether the merger should go ahead or not.

wave of retirements

Small municipalities are not yet done with the struggle to recruit staff, if certain data are to be believed.

The managing directors who manage the finances of the cities are on the way to becoming a rarity, says the president of her association, Sophie Antaya.

Between 2019 and 2022, 670 of them retired, more than half of all director generals (Quebec has about 1,100 municipalities). Additionally, according to a survey by the Association of Municipal Directors of Quebec (ADMQ), 340 others plan to do the same within five years.

“It’s important,” Ms. Antaya said. Especially since the replacement deliveries are shorter. “In the past, business leaders who arrived in a community stayed until the end of their careers, which is no longer the case. »

According to the mayor of Lac-des-Aigles, this issue is crucial. “They carry everything on their shoulders, but we can’t necessarily pay them the salary they deserve,” he said. In large municipalities, the DGs have technical assistants. When there are two of us in the office, that’s nice! »

And the mayors, you?

But what about mayors? Doesn’t the merger necessarily mean that one of the spouses will lose his job?

This is not always a problem, replies the mayor of the new town of La Morandière-Rochebaucourt in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the result of a merger that came into force on January 1st.

The new community is fifty minutes by road north of Senneterre and remained small even after its unification. Almost 336 people live there.

“In the region in the past we’ve had trouble recruiting local councillors,” notes Alain Trudel, who previously ran the city of Rochebaucourt.

The other mayor, Alain Lemay, had already planned to move for personal reasons when discussions about a possible merger started. “We didn’t automatically have to ask ourselves who would become mayor,” says Mr. Trudel. “There were no obstacles. »

The merger, according to the elected official, has made it possible to “boost the sector” and improve certain services to citizens, such as road maintenance, as leadership teams are bolstered.

In his opinion, small municipalities should think about such mergers. “I encourage them to do it because if you will, there are economies of scale. And between the administration of a municipality with 200 and 400 inhabitants, these are the same problems. »

Possibility of partial merger

But when there is a trend towards consolidation, not all cities go through this process. Pohénégamook, for example, has just decided to merge its urban planning department with the neighboring town of Saint-Athanase.

“We do not hide the fact that many small communities do not have the means to pay a full-time employee for these positions,” summarizes Pohénégamook Mayor Benoît Morin. “It’s hard to find. »

In addition, the government supports municipalities that do this, he explains. “The fact of the merger enables the search for resources. »

For example, the salary of its new director of urban planning will be reimbursed 80% by the government for five years as part of an inter-municipal cooperation program of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

Even the mayor of La Pocatière does not rule out the scenario of a more partial merger, explains the mayor. However, some services are already merged with the surrounding towns, such as the fire protection services in particular with Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies.

Discussions about a possible merger are also ongoing elsewhere in Bas-Saint-Laurent, between Trois-Pistoles and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. According to the local newspaper Info Dimanche, the lack of workers was the deciding factor there too.

Elsewhere in Quebec, two cities in the Eastern Townships — Courcelles and Saint-Évariste-de-Forsyth — have also submitted a draft filing to the Municipal Commission.

The latter last week recommended that Minister Andrée Laforest move forward. Commissioner Alain R. Roy states in a report that he believes labor shortages are “a real problem that is important for maintaining quality municipal services at a reasonable cost”.

He adds that he is also not “insensitive” to the argument that the merger “encourages better recruitment of candidates for local council offices, which benefits better and healthy local democracy”.

It is up to the minister to give the go-ahead for the merger or not by decree. In case of doubt, it can also propose changes to the proposed merger or even order a referendum to be held.

To see in the video