Photo: Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart · Public domainVal-de-Cognac invested more per resident in 2025 than 89% of compared communes
Jean-Marc Girardeau has been mayor of Val-de-Cognac since March 22, 2026, elected by the 27 members of the municipal council. At the March 2026 municipal elections, CONTINUONS ENSEMBLE POUR VAL-DE-COGNAC won 24 of the 27 seats in the first round on March 15, 2026, with 75.6% of the votes. Val-de-Cognac is part of the Communauté d'agglomération du Grand Cognac.
March 2032
Councils are elected for six years; the council elects the mayor.
Register to vote ↗Throughout this page, the median in Charente and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
What stands out about Val-de-Cognac’s town hall
Won in the first round
CONTINUONS ENSEMBLE POUR VAL-DE-COGNAC won 75.6% of the votes on March 15, 2026, more than half, so there was no second round; 2 lists stood. It took 24 of the 27 seats: half the seats as the list ahead, and its share of the rest. The other lists share the remaining 3. Who’s in charge ↓
A big year for investment
Val-de-Cognac invested €824 per resident (buildings, roads, equipment), 50% of its spending: higher than in 89% of compared French communes (France median €403). Investment swings from year to year with projects. The commune’s money ↓
Results as the Interior ministry published them; accounts from the DGFiP via OFGL. Nothing here is graded.
The council the voters chose
Seats as the March 2026 results gave them, one dot a seat.
- CONTINUONS ENSEMBLE POUR VAL-DE-COGNAC244 community seats
- " Avec vous pour l'avenir de Val de Cognac "30 community seats
As elected in the first round, March 15, 2026.
The list that comes first gets half the seats; the rest are shared in proportion among the lists with 5% or more, the winner included. So the winning list always has a majority. The same vote gave Val-de-Cognac 4 seats on the council of the Communauté d'agglomération du Grand Cognac (community seats).
Source: Interior ministry, 2026 municipal election results (March 15 and 22), subject to corrections and appeals.
4 authorities share the work
The commune is the tier closest to residents; the intercommunality, the département and the région do the rest.
Births, marriages and deaths, the electoral roll, nursery and primary schools, local roads, planning permission, the municipal police, and what else the council takes on.
Mayor: Jean-Marc Girardeau · 27 councilors
The services its communes share: usually waste collection, economic development and planning documents; often water and local buses.
Social aid (RSA, care for older and disabled people, child protection), collèges, the département’s roads, and funding for fire and rescue.
Lycées, regional trains (TER) and coaches, economic development and job training.
Who to ask
The usual split of powers (service-public.fr); an intercommunality’s exact remit varies, so check its website for waste, water and buses.
Membership: COG 2026 (INSEE); intercommunality type: BANATIC, January 2025. What each tier does: service-public.fr.
From the mayor to the intercommunality
The officials as the Interior ministry’s register lists them, and the council by list.
- 1Mayorsince March 22, 2026Jean-Marc Girardeau
- 2Deputy mayors6 adjoints, elected by the councilPascale HerbreteauBruno LanaudFlorence CaminPatrick AudebertColette ThoravalThierry Sicot
- 3Val-de-Cognac municipal council27 seats by listCONTINUONS ENSEMBLE POUR VAL-DE-COGNAC 24 · " Avec vous pour l'avenir de Val de Cognac " 3
- 4Communauté d'agglomération du Grand CognacVal-de-Cognac holds 4 seatsCommunity councilors are drawn from the council lists in the same vote.
Source: Interior ministry, national register of elected officials (RNE), August 11, 2026.
The 27 members of the Val-de-Cognac municipal council
The mayor and 6 deputy mayors first, then the councilors.
| Name | Office | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Jean-Marc Girardeau | Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Jean Luc Meunier | Maire délégué | March 22, 2026 |
| Pascale Herbreteau | 1er adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Bruno Lanaud | 2ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Florence Camin | 3ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Patrick Audebert | 4ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Colette Thoraval | 5ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Thierry Sicot | 6ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
Show the full council (27)
| Name | Office | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Jean-Marc Girardeau | Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Jean Luc Meunier | Maire délégué | March 22, 2026 |
| Pascale Herbreteau | 1er adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Bruno Lanaud | 2ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Florence Camin | 3ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Patrick Audebert | 4ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Colette Thoraval | 5ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Thierry Sicot | 6ème adjoint au Maire | March 22, 2026 |
| Pricsilla Baron | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Carole Bataille Rama | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Lydia Begaud | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Serge Bourgoin | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Patrice Braud | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Nathalie Bujard | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Céline Clerfeuille | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Christophe Collin | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Jean-François Depoutot | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Christophe Fortin | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Sophie Giorgi | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Nathalie Grollier | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Stéphane Mira | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Stéphanie Parmentier | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Joël Perché | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Estelle Sarlande | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Dominique Souchaud | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Véronique Toffano | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
| Alexandre Viroulaud | Conseiller municipal | March 15, 2026 |
Names and offices as the Interior ministry’s national register of elected officials (RNE) published them on August 11, 2026, written as it writes them. Public role only. Later resignations and replacements aren’t shown.
The council: same source as Who represents Val-de-Cognac, above.
How Val-de-Cognac voted in March 2026
2 lists stood; one won more than half the votes in the first round.
1,589 votes cast for a list
1,645 of 2,821 registered voters in Val-de-Cognac voted.
35 blank and 21 spoilt ballots, not counted in the shares.
Turnout, first round · March 15, 2026
Shares are of the votes cast for a list, leaving out blank and spoilt ballots. Lists in vote order; the colors only tell the lists apart.
2026 elections: same source as Who’s in charge, above.
Val-de-Cognac spends €1,655 per resident a year
The commune’s consolidated accounts: main and annexed budgets, transfers between them removed.
Per resident, 2025 · against compared communes
Spending and debt per resident, 2018 to 2025
Val-de-Cognac owed €2.4M at the end of 2025, €674 per resident, lower than in 56% of compared French communes, equal to 81% of a year’s running costs.
Show year by year
| Year | Spending | Investment | Debt | Debt in all |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | €1,655 | €824 | €674 | €2.4M |
| 2024 | €1,192 | €377 | €561 | €2M |
| 2023 | €1,145 | €216 | €607 | €2.2M |
| 2022 | €940 | €154 | €628 | €2.3M |
| 2021 | €1,075 | €372 | €682 | €2.5M |
| 2020 | €823 | €142 | €725 | €2.7M |
| 2019 | €867 | €186 | €739 | €2.8M |
| 2018 | €923 | €145 | €777 | €2.9M |
Source: OFGL, consolidated commune accounts 2018–2025 (DGFiP); 2025 provisional.
The 21st highest debt per resident of 41 communes its size
The 40 compared communes nearest in population, debt per resident at the end of 2025.
Lowest: Artix, €4. Highest: Les Belleville, €17,086.
Have a say in Val-de-Cognac
French citizens register online or at the town hall; citizens of other EU countries can vote in municipal elections too.
service-public.fr ↗See where you’re registered and which polling station is yours.
service-public.fr ↗Council meetings are public; the agenda and minutes are posted at the town hall and usually on its website.
service-public.fr ↗Opening hours, address and phone number of the mairie of Val-de-Cognac in the public services directory.
lannuaire.service-public.fr ↗Who can stand, how lists are formed and the deadlines, from the Interior ministry.
interieur.gouv.fr ↗What this data can and can’t tell you
- Mayors and councilors. From the Interior ministry’s national register of elected officials (RNE) as published on August 11, 2026: name, office and start dates, nothing else. The register counts a mayor as a councilor too; the page counts each person once. It isn’t a live roll: resignations and replacements after that date aren’t shown, and no party is inferred for any official.
- How the council is elected. Since March 2026 every commune elects its council from lists (a 2025 law extended list voting to communes under 1,000). A list with more than half the votes in the first round wins; otherwise lists with 10% or more can go on to a second round, where the list ahead wins. It gets half the seats, and the rest are shared in proportion among lists with 5% or more. The council then elects the mayor and the deputy mayors.
- The label beside a list. The political nuance the prefecture gave the list for the ministry’s results (Divers droite, Union de la gauche…), shown as published. It isn’t the list’s own description; many lists, most in small communes, have none.
- The commune’s money. OFGL’s consolidated accounts from the DGFiP, 2018 to 2025; 2025 is provisional. Spending and investment leave out loan repayments; running costs are part of spending. Debt is what was owed at the end of the year.
- Per resident. Divided by the DGFiP’s population for that year (population totale, which counts some people, such as boarding students, in two communes), so it can differ from the census figure elsewhere on the site.
- The medians. Beside the town’s figure, the median of compared communes in its département and in France (those with an overall grade). A commune’s spending follows its size and its role: one that runs a pool or a theater for the villages around it spends more per resident.
Questions about Val-de-Cognac’s town hall
Who is the mayor of Val-de-Cognac?
Jean-Marc Girardeau, mayor since March 22, 2026, according to the Interior ministry’s register of elected officials (August 11, 2026).
How many councilors does Val-de-Cognac have?
The Val-de-Cognac municipal council has 27 members, the mayor and 6 deputy mayors included.
Who won the 2026 municipal elections in Val-de-Cognac?
CONTINUONS ENSEMBLE POUR VAL-DE-COGNAC, in the first round on March 15, 2026, with 75.6% of the votes; it holds 24 of the 27 seats.
What was the turnout in Val-de-Cognac?
58.3% of registered voters voted in the first round on March 15, 2026; the median of compared French communes was 57.4%.
When are the next municipal elections in Val-de-Cognac?
Councils are elected for six years, so the next general municipal elections are due in March 2032. A council can be re-elected sooner if it loses too many members.
How much debt does Val-de-Cognac have?
€2.4M at the end of 2025, €674 per resident; the median of compared French communes was €748.
Which intercommunality is Val-de-Cognac part of?
Val-de-Cognac is part of the Communauté d'agglomération du Grand Cognac, which runs the services its communes share.
Sources: Interior ministry RNE, August 11, 2026 · Interior ministry, municipal results 2026 · OFGL consolidated commune accounts 2018–2025 · INSEE COG 2026 and BANATIC (January 2025) for the intercommunality. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.