A “social bomb”. This is how the LFI deputies qualify the low emission zones (ZFE), which aim to gradually banish the most polluting vehicles from large cities. They advocate their overhaul, to avoid penalizing the working classes. “The EPZs are felt to be deeply unfair”, underlined Monday in front of the press Sylvain Carrière and Francois Piquemalelected respectively from the conurbations of Montpellier and Toulouse.
This diagnosis is consistent with a recent consultation conducted by the Senate, according to which 86% of individuals and 79% of professionals say they are opposed to the deployment of EPZs. The rapporteur for the senatorial control mission on the subject, Philippe Tabarot (LR), also warned of the risk of an “additional social bomb”.
“The cart before the horse”
“It starts from a good idea” but “we put the cart before the horse”, by not planning to condition the deployment of ZFEs on the public transport offer, according to François Piquemal and Sylvain Carrière. In a bill for the “good development of ZFEs”, they ask to suspend these zones where the travel time by public transport is greater than 1.5 times the travel time by car.
The two deputies also suggest redefining the Crit’Air sticker to take into account the weight of the vehicle, and thus penalize vehicles of the SUV type in particular. Finally, they want to lower VAT on train and public transport tickets, develop the “retrofit” sector (to replace the heat engine of a vehicle with an electric motor) or even increase aid for the most precarious. “We want a popular ecology and carry it out step by step”, assures Sylvain Carrière, recalling the episode of the “yellow vests” in 2018-2019, born to protest against the increase in a fuel tax.
Improve air quality
After the creation of 11 metropolitan ZFEs in 2019, the climate and resilience law of 2021 provided for their generalization in the 43 agglomerations of more than 150,000 inhabitants in metropolitan France before December 31, 2024. Their objective is to improve the quality of the air and limit emissions of fine particles, responsible for respiratory diseases and 40,000 deaths per year according to Public Health France.
Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse, is taking part at the government’s request in a study mission on the harmonization of ZFEs, the conclusions of which are expected at the end of June.