The meeting had the appearance of a plea. Gathered this Wednesday in Lyon, the main environmental mayors of France came to defend their results in front of the press, deploring moreover the attacks of which they could be the object. “Since 2020, nothing has been spared us: futile controversies, attempts at disinformation, false trials. This is undoubtedly the price to pay when you want to bring disruption to the dominant model”, they analyze in unison.
“A need for therapy? “Asks a journalist. “No, we are in very good health, smiles Pierre Hurmic, the mayor of Bordeaux. But we need to make it known that we are not locked in our municipal dungeons”.
“We want to convince the inhabitants that the policies we are carrying out are the right ones” to make the ecological transition a success, asserts in turn Bruno Bernard, the president of the metropolis of Lyon.
Ensuring that “citizens understand our projects”
Between Rhône and Saône, two recent critical polls revealed that citizens were not fully satisfied with the action taken by Grégory Doucet. A simple alert? Halfway through the term, it is already time for mobilization to seduce voters. “We were elected on a vision of the city, we must ensure that this vision is shared. We must not disappoint,” warns Pierre Hurmic.
“Faced with the ecological emergency, it is necessary to have stronger support among citizens. That everyone understands our projects”, abounds Anne Vignot, mayor of Besançon, without appointing a person in charge, while Bruno Bernard denounces “the will of the government to caricature the ecologists and to discredit their words”.
“Because, like the President of the Republic, he is not really in a position to manage the climate and environmental crisis”, he believes, with supporting examples: “Each year, he backs down on the use of pesticides. On the question of water, it tackles domestic uses rather than fundamentally transforming agriculture. “We do not have a monopoly on ecological action, but many talk about it without declining actions on the ground”, supports Pierre Hurmic.
“Leading Change”
Eager to “move the lines” and “lead the change”, the new EELV mayors affirm their priority: “commit daily to prepare for the future”. Commit together to “compensate for a lack of action by the State”. It’s that they came to call back on Wednesday.
If they did not have a common program at the time of the municipal elections, the elected officials now indicate that they “meet regularly”. “We share our progress, our difficulties in coordinating our actions and in advancing the subjects on which the government is not making progress, such as mobility or revegetation”, underlines Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon. “The ecological transition is happening here around the table. It will be done from our territories”, concludes François Astorg, the mayor of Annecy.