A vegetarian buffet organized on the day of the installation of the new majority in Strasbourg, self-service bicycles installed in the entrance of the Hôtel de Ville in Bordeaux, a new cycle path in the center of Tours. No doubt: the political situation has changed in several large cities in France, now run by green mayors. Carried by an unprecedented green wave in the municipal elections, these elected officials, many of whom meet this Thursday in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis) at the Summer Days of the Ecologists, have been taking very closely scrutinized first steps for six weeks. Both eager to quickly initiate the turn of the climate transition in their city but also to put on the clothes of credible managers.
If they obviously had to quickly respond to the health emergency linked to the Covid 19 epidemic and the economic crisis, unlocking aid to companies, associations and cultural actors, their first decisions are for the time being mostly symbolic. In Strasbourg as in Bordeaux, the mayors have thus declared a “state of climate emergency”. Most have lowered their allowances and the titles of their assistants, often feminized positions, have changed. "I have a first assistant in charge of finance and the climate challenge because all our budgetary policies will be studied according to their climate impact" thus commits Pierre Hurmic, who has overturned Bordeaux, a bastion of the right for 73 years.
Some mayors have nevertheless decided to get into the hard work quickly. As in Tours where Emmanuel Denis banned cars on the historic Wilson “stone bridge” which spans the Loire in the city center in mid-August. An experiment for three months deemed "hasty and ideological" by the opposition. "It makes some teeth cringe," recognizes the new mayor. Obviously, it's the old world that resists. But this bridge only saw 6% of downtown traffic and I announced this project. We give pedestrians a real balcony on the river: I'm sure that will win the support of the population ”.
In the thick of it in September
Sporadic controversies also erupted in Lyon, when the city adopted inclusive writing in its communications or banned the overflight of the metropolis by the patrol of France on July 14 to avoid gatherings conducive to Covid-19. In Bordeaux, it is a declaration of the mayor at 20 minutes in which he estimates that “in the long term […] we will go towards a ban” on cars in the cities, which provoked an outcry in early July. "It taught me to be more careful in my speaking," says Pierre Hurmic. In fact we will start with traffic zones at 20 km / h. I am very attached to consultation, I am a pragmatic ecologist ”.
A qualifier highly prized by the new green councilors, anxious to gain credibility after a campaign where their competitors have portrayed them as, sectarian, dogmatic or even incompetent. President EELV of Greater Lyon, where he has control over a budget of 3.4 billion euros, Bruno Bernard advocates "a moderate speech". “But the soft method will not prevent us from going far and fast. When you want to radically change things, you have to convince in order to have maximum support. We cannot play politics against people ”argues this business leader who worked for the PS.
The elected officials will really get to the heart of the matter in September. For the Lyon metropolitan area, Bruno Bernard listed ten priority projects launched this summer: supervision of rents, creation of a public water authority, preparation of a low-emission zone to gradually exclude polluting vehicles, etc. " We're going to accelerate because six years is both long and short. A new metro line is fifteen years old. We want to initiate irreversible projects, ”he argues. “Everything will not be seen immediately, already warns Pierre Hurmic. We are going to plant trees in our squares to better resist heat waves, but that takes time ”.
The presidential election in sight
The new mayors are finally aware that their majorities, composite, will also be observed in the light of a possible rapprochement of the left in view of the presidential election of 2022. "The stake is major for EELV which could use these cities as laboratories that foreshadow what an ecological presidency could look like, analyzes Chloé Morin, expert associated with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. But for this, the mayors will have to find a middle position and unite beyond their militant base. Because the French may be more and more sensitive to the ecological cause, they are reasonably, we saw it at the time of the increase in the carbon tax ”.