Le Figaro Lyon
The elected representatives of the metropolis looked this Monday at the vote on a public service delegation contract on the future district heating network in the south west of the territory.
A 350 million euro project unanimously welcomed by the fund, but whose adoption caused troubled exchanges between the opposition and the environmentalist executive, after the sending before Christmas of an anonymous email accusing Greater Lyon of having favored the company which won the bid to the detriment of its competitor.
“Fake News” and filing a complaint
An electronic missive, addressed to several elected environmentalists and whose content was published on January 11 by BFM Business.
According to this email, the contract of 350 million euros over 25 years awarded to Coriance would have been the subject
of “complicity within the services”
.
The letter also targets former Greens senator Jean-Vincent Placé who would have been in contact with elected environmentalists from the metropolis of Lyon, including the president of the community Bruno Bernard.
So many suspicions around which the debates revolved this Monday.
Bruno Bernard, the president of the metropolis denounced
“totally false”
information , emanating from a
“crow who did not transmit any information to the courts and demonstrated nothing”
and relayed
“by a few journalists who lacked caution"
.
The elected environmentalist assured that Greater Lyon filed a complaint against X last Friday for
“slanderous denunciation”
and became a civil party to identify the author of the email.
“Is this a joke?
Is it for economic or political interests?
Identifying the person behind the letter would help us understand things
,” declared Bruno Bernard.
The opposition demands explanations
For its part, the opposition oscillated between denouncing the methods of the crow, who never revealed his identity, produced no evidence and answered no questions from the journalists and elected officials contacted;
support for the services which investigated this appeal, and questioning the probity of the public market.
Christophe Geourjon, centrist elected official from the “Inventing the metropolis of tomorrow” group
,
said he supported the procedure “
for slanderous denunciation
” while demanding explanations from Bruno Bernard.
“Do you confirm that you did not have an exchange with a former environmentalist elected official (Jean-Vincent Placé, Editor’s note)?
Why did you favor Coriance's offer, which is more volatile and sensitive to changes in world energy prices than that of its competitor?
(…) While Idex's offer seemed cleaner, you chose Coriance which will emit 23 tonnes more NOX per year, or the equivalent of 100,000 diesels.
A schizophrenic choice when within the framework of the ZFE you are going to ban these same diesel vehicles
,” he questioned.
On the LR side, we also wonder the reasons which led to choosing the company Coriance
“whose offer is more expensive”
, asked Myriam Fontaine.
For the latter, the context in which this vote took place would have deserved
“more explanations”
from the environmentalist majority.
“By refusing this you are allowing suspicion to hover
,” she added.
Bruno Bernard explained in return that he had answered all the questions asked and assured
“that he had not participated in anything and met no one on this issue”
.
The centrist and Republican groups also requested a postponement of the decision given the context.
What the president of the metropolis refused.
“Imagine the risk that our community could experience if a postponement of voting was accepted for each anonymous email denouncing a public contract
,” he explained.
The delegation was finally validated.