The calm before the storm. Jean-Luc Pithois is preparing for it. In his village of Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer (Côtes-d’Armor), a charming peninsula on the banks of the Channel, the number of inhabitants drops from 906 to 10,000 at the onset of summer . The mayor (SE), whose municipality has 63% of secondary residents, is moved, a little annoyed: “The population is aging, we do not have year-round rental and that jeopardizes the maintenance of our school. “
Faced with this observation, what solutions? “We don’t have the budget to preempt increasingly expensive goods. The coastal law blocks us from everywhere and we have very little farmland to buy ”, he sweeps away, knowing that building all the way is not a panacea. He blows : “We risk becoming an open-air retirement home. ”
80% of second homes
Mayors in this situation, Brittany counts them on a good part of its coasts. In 2017, 13.3% of dwellings in the region were second homes. On the Morbihan coast, this rate climbs to 80% in villages like Arzon. “A real problem for local life”, loose Nil Caouissin, professor of history-geography and Breton, spokesperson for the Breton Democratic Union (UDB) and candidate for the regional on the list of ecologist Brittany of the future. For several weeks, his Manifesto for resident status in Brittany (Presses populaire de Bretagne) fueled the discussions.
His proposal? Reserve the purchase of real estate in the most sought-after areas for people who have lived for a year in this same community of municipalities. It is inspired by an abortive idea of the Corsican separatists, which provided for a period of five years of life on the territory to access the purchase on the island. “Building housing estates and consuming agricultural land is not a solution for the future, he argues. My manifesto is a way to start the debate. ”
Almost all of the other candidates, Isabelle Le Callennec, head of the Hissons Haut la Bretagne list, for the right and the center, Gilles Pennelle (A strong Brittany, supported by the National Rally) and the socialist president of the region, Loïg Chesnais -Girard (La Bretagne with Loïg), oppose the initiative. “I am against a resident status which would generate two types of citizens, Bretons and others, in a waiting zone to become Bretons”, the latter is indignant.
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