Every day, France's 35,000 mayors are on the front line to meet the expectations of citizens and the most exposed to their anger, which sometimes takes the form of death threats. These elected officials also have to deal with declining public funding and ever-increasing administrative constraints. A headache for these Swiss Army knives of the Republic, which includes Romain Colas, mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine, southeast of Paris, since 2008.

Published on: 02/15/2026 - 09:29

The sun-drenched Yerres flows peacefully in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, Monday February 9, a stone's throw from the Sénart forest. This bucolic landscape is located below the town hall where France 24 meets with Romain Colas to talk about his mandate as mayor. This left-wing politician has led the town about 30 km southeast of Paris for three terms.

He will be a candidate for his own succession next March, with no declared candidate facing him at the time of writing this article. “I think I disgusted them,” jokes the mayor before adding: “Here, it has always been a clash between the left and the right, but there is no longer any local representation of the right as there was before, to which is added the erosion of traditional political parties.” When it comes to talking about his role in three words, Romain Colas responds straight away: “Availability, sincerity and determination. I would like to add a fourth: responsibility, because he is the one who makes the link with all the others”.

Read also Municipalities 2026: the Socialist Party tests its strategy before the presidential election

At 46 years old, the mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine pulls no punches when describing his daily life for eighteen years: "You have to have tanned leather, you have to go for it and not stop at the first obstacle, because otherwise you don't do anything," he believes, before adding: "I often say that being mayor is 90% hassle for 10% satisfaction... but the 10% is well worth it. 90%!”

This Monday afternoon is no exception to the rule: the first councilor must manage several files in this particular pre-municipal period, some of which are linked to his presidency of the Joint Syndicate for Sanitation and Water Management of the Yerres Watershed (SyAGE). During this meeting, Romain Colas reviewed several subjects with the general director of services and the chief of staff of SyAGE. The discussion is sometimes accompanied by criticism of state administrative services: “There is sometimes a disconnect with what we experience on the ground,” he laments.

There is no shortage of examples in this area. Like many city councilors, the mayor of this commune in the north-east of Essonne faces administrative obstacles. On a frame hanging on a wall of his office representing a satellite view of Boussy-Saint-Antoine, Romain Colas points to a plot of land, with this comment: "It's a project to convert a field to organic farming which has been blocked for 18 years due to administrative stupidity".

Read alsoThe battle for Paris: #SaccageParis, an anti-Hidalgo bludgeoning favorable to the right

There is no shortage of examples in this area. Like many of his counterparts, the mayor of this commune in the north-east of Essonne faces administrative obstacles, sometimes Kafkaesque: "It's a project to convert a field to organic farming", explains Romain Colas, pointing to a plot of land overlooking a Boussy-Saint-Antoine view. “He has been blocked for 18 years for administrative stupidity.”

“The resources of public authorities have been reduced”

In addition to these blockages, the Buxacian mayor must also deal with the drop in financial and human resources allocated to them by the State. For years, municipalities and intermunicipalities have had to deal with falling budgets - the adoption of the latest 2026 finance law did not escape this logic, which was denounced by the Association of Mayors of France (AMF).

Also read Municipalities 2026: more than 10 million voters excluded from the vote?

“Since I have been mayor, the resources of public authorities in the broad sense have been reduced,” explains Romain Colas. “This is valid for our budgetary room for maneuver and for our interlocutors in state services, who are less and less able to support us.” The councilor particularly deplores the disappearance of agencies such as the Departmental Equipment Directorate (DDE) "which served as a design office for town halls and which supported us in our projects". He notes that this lack of resources “makes the room for maneuver increasingly narrow”.

With immediate consequences: Romain Colas says he is "more and more often forced to say no and to postpone projects" in the town of around 8,000 inhabitants. Recently, he had to postpone indefinitely the energy renovation of one of the three gymnasiums in his town. “And I am unable to say when I will be able to do it,” he slips. He still considers himself “lucky” to have been able to renovate the other two infrastructures in recent years “when there was still a little financial room for maneuver.”

No time to feel sorry for a new meeting already beginning between the mayor and his close team in his office, on the first floor of this small 14th century castle, redeveloped into a town hall since 1970. It is notably a question of the pagination and content of the next "Boussy Info", the town magazine. The next front page is validated, crossed out with the title “Spring soon”. Romain Colas also reviews his upcoming meetings with residents of the town - he receives them at the town hall every Friday afternoon.

Buxacians call on him for any type of request: here a parking problem in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, here a person unhappy with snow removal, or even a lessor who wants to meet them about an amended building permit... There is never a shortage of requests, whether in the town hall or in the street. “I rarely take less than an hour to buy my bread on Sunday,” jokes Romain Colas. “But I meet people and they want to talk to their mayor, and that’s normal.”

Also read: The battle for Paris: a ballot more open than ever

“I have received dozens and dozens of death threats from the fascists”

The same when he closes his office, "generally around 7 p.m.", and walks home. “I regularly come across someone who asks me about this or that subject while I’m walking home,” he explains. He sometimes happens to be addressed in a slightly more virulent manner - being mayor also means finding himself on the front line of citizen discontent.

“This is the other movement that I have witnessed since my election in 2008: relations in society have become tense. Some of our fellow citizens are increasingly violent, not necessarily physically, but in their behavior. And mayors find themselves at the forefront,” explains Romain Colas.

A few days ago, the mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine - whose town is served by the RER D - was attacked by a resident because of... traffic problems on the line. "The guy gave me a hard time for five minutes on the RER D. He was unable to hear that I shared his anger and his demands. At the same time, I told him 'it's not me, it's not the city that manages (this transport)'", he recalls.

This citizen anger can also take the form of death threats in extreme cases. Romain Colas experienced this when the neo-Nazi inscription “SS Viking will kill Colas” was found written in chalk on the town hall square in early 2023. “I received dozens and dozens of death threats from the fascists,” recalls the mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine.

In this regard, nothing will match the year 2016 for the first councilor. Her town was then in the eye of the media storm: three women suspected of having wanted to commit an attack near Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris were arrested in the Grange-aux-Belles district. Romain Colas answers questions from the media, followed by an impromptu muscular exchange with a “notoriously fascist resident of a neighboring town”, he recalls. "In the minute that followed, we received emails and faxes at the town hall. The first death threats from the fascist sphere. I was notably called a 'socialope', 'collaborator', 'sold to the Brothers', etc..."

Read also Municipalities 2026: the decisive test before the 2027 presidential election

“All this has never scared me,” says the elected official. "I was more afraid for those close to me than for myself (his family was also threatened with death). But these people are cowards. Rather than making me want to stop being mayor, they tended to motivate me to continue my mission."

The sun's rays continue to shine into the mayor's office between the slats of the wooden shutter behind him. In his dark blue vest over his light blue shirt with rolled up sleeves, the first councilor likes to say that being mayor "in the period we are going through, is to be a shock absorber of popular anger." And he elaborates: "At a time when people are more and more tense, we have to hold on. The day when the mayors give up... I believe that we will lose a lot of the ability to live together, already so damaged in our country."

Burn out and moments of escape at sea

Romain Colas is convinced that “the first job of a city is to help people agree to live together”. And to achieve this, he does not shy away from the effort to achieve it on a daily basis. His typical day as mayor starts around 6 a.m. - 6:30 a.m. "I check if there are emergencies on my phone and in my emails, then like any mayor of Ile-de-France I read Le Parisien, and also I listen to France Inter," he explains.

His day continues in town hall with a "ritualized" daily routine where he meets all his departments with regular meetings, like those of this Monday afternoon. He compares his weekly work schedule "to that of an executive", with one difference: "As soon as I leave home, I am the mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine, which involves a lot of representation with local events."

All these requests are often time-consuming and sometimes jeopardize the balance between professional and personal life: "I learned to manage my working time over the course of my three mandates", notes Romain Colas, in front of a photo of the hemicycle of the National Assembly displayed on a wall of his office, a reminder of his past life as a deputy (2014-2017).

The AMF issued an alert on the subject in 2024, warning of the deleterious consequences on the health of mayors of such a pace. Romain Colas is well placed to talk about it. In 2018, shortly after his mandate as a deputy, he led Olivier Faure's campaign as part of the Aubervilliers congress of the Socialist Party and became his chief of staff. He accumulates workloads in addition to his role as mayor and "explodes in mid-air", by his own admission. “I burned out in 2019 linked to several factors, including my work. I had taken on responsibilities, I worked 80-hour weeks, I no longer touched the ground, I no longer slept. And I burst in mid-flight,” explains the first councilor.

Like him, some 31.4% of mayors said they were "facing the beginnings of exhaustion" and 3.48% said they presented "a risk of severe burn-out" in the exercise of their mandate, according to a study conducted by the Amarok Observatory published in 2024. The mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine drew consequences for his health: "I took a step back, I set priorities, and I ultimately told myself that I could not not be everywhere all the time.”

On another wall of the mayor's office, two frames represent a sailboat at sea and boat ropes. “The right to disconnect doesn’t exist when you’re mayor, but sailing is my decompression valve,” explains the first councilor. “I discovered this in 2009, and it’s really the thing that makes me feel good, that makes me disconnect. When I spend half a day at sea, it’s as if I had a week’s vacation.”

His last days of rest date back to the All Saints' Day holidays. He would like to find a few days to go back to sea, probably after the municipal elections in March. And he concludes: "It does me good sometimes to wander around places where no one expects anything from me. To remain attentive and available in one's role, we need to take a break from time to time with this permanent availability that requires the mandate of mayor."

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.