Everything except environmentalists! An unlikely alliance was formed against the executive of the metropolis of Lyon, taken over by Bruno Bernard (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV). The four opposition groups of the second largest agglomeration in France have stepped up to the plate together, on the occasion of the Metropolitan Council, Tuesday, December 14. Other times were opposed, their respective presidents gave a joint press conference, to extend the allocation of seats in the new establishment responsible for transport in the perimeter of the capital of Gaul and the department of Rhône.

From January 2022, the Syndicat Mixte des Transports de l’Agglomération Lyonnaise (Sytral) will become the Organizing Authority for mobility in the regions of Lyon, by virtue of the mobility policy law of December 24, 2019. Expanded to eleven communities of communes of the Rhône, and to a representative of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, this new public administrative establishment will have 38 seats on its board of directors, against 23 seats on the current Sytral union committee.

Bruno Bernard has decided to reduce the opposition representatives from seven to four, in the 25 seats reserved for the metropolis of Lyon in the new body. “For certain strategic decisions, a majority of 75% of the votes is necessary in the regulation of this new establishment. The minority opposition by allying with the other territories could block major projects decided by the elected majority of the metropolis ”, he explained during a press lunch, before the metropolitan council.

“Dictatorship” of the ecological president

“We went from seven to four seats, and from 30% to 17% representativeness in the next board of directors, while we represent 40% of the voters. It is a denial of democracy, contrary to the totem of proportionality so much praised by environmentalists ”, fulminates Philippe Cochet. At the origin of the mayors’ rebellion against the majority of the metropolis, during the summer, the mayor (Les Républicains) of Caluire finds a new battle horse to denounce ” the dictatorship “ of the ecological president, according to the term repeated in meeting of the metropolitan council.

In addition to Marc Grivel, president of the Synergies group, bringing together elected officials from small towns, the leader of the metropolitan right has recruited two new allies in his anti-environmental crusade: the group Inventing the metropolis of tomorrow, created by Gérard Collomb, reduced to the congruent opposition of eleven metropolitan councilors out of 150, after his alliance with the right between the two rounds of spring 2020. And the Progressives and Republicans group of David Kimelfeld (formerly La République en Marche), Gérard Collomb’s successor to the presidency of the metropolis in 2018. Even angry to death with the former Minister of the Interior, David Kimelfeld justifies his rallying to the anti-environmental front: “Our common foundation is democracy in this house which must remain in dialogue and openness. “

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