“We have handed local populations over to little caciques,” the sociologist deplored while speaking on Radio Magik 9’s Panel Magik on Monday, May 4, 2026. According to Ms. Oriol, this situation emerged under the banner of decentralization.

“In 1986, we entered into a decentralization logic. Those who studied in France and saw François Mitterrand launch decentralization did not try to understand either the political context, the social context, or the institutional context, and they wanted to do the same thing in the country. This resulted in mayors and communal section leaders who became little caciques,” Michèle Oriol stated. She therefore called for breaking what she described as the myth of decentralization, emphasizing that “the reconstruction of the State will take place at the center and not on the periphery.”