“Postponing the opening to competition because a minority of staff could take users hostage is to give in to blackmail”, she judges, noting that a postponement would not protect against “a subsequent social conflict. The president of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), Valérie Pécresse, refuses to delay the opening to competition of Parisian buses, RATP’s monopoly until the end of 2024, even if the Paris Olympics could be disturbed.
“There is a risk of a social movement that would disrupt the Olympic Games because the RATP has a monopoly. But, given its ethics, I do not imagine that this large public company is not at the rendezvous of a planetary event where the image of France is at stake, “explains Valérie Pécresse in an interview with the Figaro to be released on Wednesday.
“Today, it is imperative to reassure RATP agents on the conditions for the implementation of competition”, insists the elected official (LR). The left-wing opposition to Valérie Pécresse has been campaigning for several months against the arrival of competition or for its postponement, believing that the process of opening up the market is already having an impact on the current difficulties of the RATP and that the end of the monopoly of the RATP on the buses could have harmful consequences on the organization of the Olympic Games, six months earlier.
“We are ready and on time”
“If there is a problem, I am open for the State, since it is fixed in the law, to possibly review this date. […] I am pragmatic. We can discuss, we can shift ”, estimated Thursday the Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune.
“If the government wants to change the law, they can do it. But that would be to the detriment of travellers,” says Valérie Pécresse at Figaro. “I scrupulously respect the law, which is already very favorable to the RATP. […] We are ready and on time,” she adds, noting that the social requirements had been raised in the calls for tenders.
“Opening up to competition in all sectors brings a better offer at a better price,” says the boss of Ile-de-France transport, for whom “the RATP is a failing monopoly”. “The degradation of the service shows that the system would work better with competition,” she says, referring to the current difficulties of the Régie, which is struggling to run buses and metros correctly. “In a market open to competition, Ile-de-France Mobilités would have the possibility of changing operator when the service is badly done”, she asserts.