ADVERTISEMENTA mayor in France has put his town’s cinema, primary school and town hall on a small ads website in a tongue-in-cheek swipe at government cuts.
Each building in the coastal town of Frontignan near Montpellier was put on leboincoin.fr for 2.5 million euros.
The symbolic move was designed as a protest against moves which has seen 300 million euros slashed from grants to regional authorities.
Pierre Bouldoire said 2.5 million euros was the amount that Frontignan must do without over a five-year period.
“I wanted to show that the politics of the government would have effects on public services,” added Bouldoire.
Leboncoin.fr, a popular website in France for buying and selling a range of items, quickly took the adverts down.
Bouldoire said when the town’s residents discovered the sales banners across the three buildings they thought it was a prank by opposition politicians.
“But when I explained to them the reason for this action, they supported me, including those who voted for [Emmanuel] Macron, like me, in the second round of voting.”
Macron, elected president in May, has seen his ratings plunge in recent weeks as his team works out the tricky details of implementing campaign promises such as labour reform and spending cuts.
In July, the head of the French military, Pierre de Villiers, resigned over budget cuts after a public row with Macron.