Political life can be inventive. And paradoxical. The Citizens' Climate Convention was "born out of the yellow vests crisis with the desire to find ecological transition paths that are acceptable to the French," said a ministerial adviser. However, it gave birth to an explosive idea: limiting the speed to 110 km / h on the highway. When we remember that the lowering to 80 km / h of the authorized speed on departmental roads was precisely one of the breeding grounds of the new movement of winter 2018/2019 ... "Enthusiasm, joy, joy", quips a minister.
Within the government, like the majority, the quarrels provoked by this measure defended tooth and nail by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, have left traces. An LREM member of parliament pulls out the harrows: “The 80 km / h, it got the hell out, we still talk about it every day. We have enough complicated subjects not to add to it! The same takes the side of "stop bothering the French". A pompidolian formula that has pleased other times to use the head of state. "The president's promise was also to give air to the French," said a minister.
For the time being, the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Elisabeth Borne, is giving pledges. And even pronounced, not without caution and "on a personal basis", for the limitation to 110 km / h on the highway, like Agnes Pannier-Runacher, Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy and finance
“Elisabeth Borne has ventured a little. If we want to kill the Citizens' Convention, all we have to do is say that we are for the 110 km / h ”, breathes one of his colleagues, worried that“ out of 150 proposals, one retains one, epidermal " "In principle, she is in favor of it, because it makes us think about the impact of speed and traffic. This could, according to estimates, reduce CO2 emissions by 20% on similar journeys, ”echoed the entourage of the minister, while promising that nothing will be done“ without the support of the French ”.
"The artificialisation of soils is more important"
The results of the Citizens' Convention vote are a telling indicator. “All the proposals were voted more than 90%. For the 110 km / h, there was a heated debate in mode it will tense , and it was voted at 60%, "observes those around Borne. On RTL, the Secretary of State for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, has set foot in the dish, estimating, without revealing his position on the merits, that the measure could "if the president so decides, fit into a series of proposals […] submitted to a consultative referendum ”.
The Constitution does not allow for the organization of a referendum, like a multiple choice questionnaire. Such consultation can only be carried out on the basis of a bill. One solution would be to transcribe the different measures into as many articles of the same text. "If you put the 110 km / h, you make everything fall, fears a minister. This would excite crowds against a referendum in which there could be interesting things. The artificialisation of soils, for example, is much more important. »Article L. 558-45 of the electoral code provides, however, that« when several referendums are organized on the same day, voters are provided with a ballot paper printed on white paper enabling them to answer each question asked by the answer yes or no . "
Political Newsletter
Every day, the political news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Each is now suspended from the president's arbitration, which intends to look at the proposals one by one and which we know is tempted by a referendum. An appointment is made on June 29, at the Elysée, with the 150 members of the Citizens' Convention to "provide a first response". The challenge? Show that their work does not remain - he promised - a dead letter, mark a turning point in the fight against global warming, without going beyond the limits of "acceptable" for the French. Delicate equation.
