the towel burns between the mayor of Toulouse and the president of Haute-Garonne
Two men, two parties, two communities, and many disagreements. Since Monday evening, passes of arms multiply between Jean-Luc Moudenc, the LR mayor of Toulouse and Georges Méric, the PS president of the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne. In the background, the third metro line in Toulouse, the Réseau Express Vélo (REV) or the reception of unaccompanied minors.
The latest illustration of the dissension between these two heavyweights in local political life has its origins in a letter written by Georges Méric to the president of Tisséo-Collectivités, Jean-Michel Latte. In this letter, the President of the Departmental Council is concerned about the delay in the third line of the Toulouse metro.
Investigation into the environmental impact of the third metro line
This third-line project is funded up to 102 million euros per department. “Despite the recent announcement of a report on the prospects for commissioning at the end of 2028, and no longer at the date brought forward to 2025 until a short time ago, questions remain as to the capacity to meet this new objective” writes the socialist who demands “a presentation of the precise implementation schedule” and affirms that “These schedule slippages also lead us to question the control of project costs.”
Another point of tension mentioned by Georges Méric in his letter: the environmental impact of the construction of a metro line. “The carbon footprint of this project and therefore its environmental benefit remains to be assessed more precisely”is it specified, while an extraordinary municipal council is delivered this Tuesday morning at the Capitol around the environmental authorization file of the projects of the Airport Express Line.
The inhabitants of the Metropolis, “sub-Haut-Garonne”?
It only took a few hours for Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor Les Républicains de Toulouse to respond. In a long interview on the Actu Toulouse site, the city councilor responds to several attacks and believes that the Departmental Council “discriminates” against the inhabitants of the Metropolis and take them “for the sub-Haut-Garonne”.
Jean-Luc Moudenc is surprised environmental concerns by Georges Meric: “These are quarrels over figures initiated by a few associations on scientific bases that we do not know. [….] There is a kind of umbilical cord between this associative sphere and our opposition.” According to the president of the Metropolis of Toulouse: “The Department is not really expecting answers on the merits but is making a political coup in its style and which will not mislead anyone among those who follow the file.”
I find it quite pungent to see the Department copy and paste associative accusations on the environmental record of the 3rd line. And who can believe that Georges Méric has more confidence in politicized association amateurs rather than in the engineers of his departments of the Departmental Council? – Jean Luc Moudenc, in an interview with Actu Toulouse.
A little later in the interview, Jean-Luc Moudenc addresses a spade to his colleague from the Departmenton the subject of the Express Bike Network (TOWER). “I regret the discrimination practiced by the Department: instead of helping it in its entirety, it finances the REV outside Metropolitan France and does not give a penny on the metropolitan territory”, denounces the mayor of Toulouse. According to him, the Metropolis “yet brings to the Department 73% of its tax resources. I am shocked by this discrimination which tends to make the inhabitants of the Metropolis pass for the sub-Haut-Garonne!”
The Department denies any discrimination
Proposals that have not been previewed by Georges Méric. “I am very surprised by what seems to be a loss of coolness on major subjects for our fellow citizens, subjects which deserve, on the contrary, rigor and responsibility”writes the President of the Departmental Council in a press release.
“Serious and unacceptable things have been said”does he believe about the charges of discrimination against the inhabitants of the Metropolisbefore recalling some numbers. “The Department mobilized, in 2021, 1,777 billion euros for the whole of Haute-Garonne, including 891 million euros for Toulouse Métropole and 887 million euros for the rest of the territory.”
Furthermore, should I remind Jean-Luc Moudenc of the exceptional support of the Department of 45 million euros, which enabled him to complete the financing of the MEETT?” – Georges Meric
Unaccompanied minors: a new point of tension
Georges Méric takes the opportunity to address a new spade a political adversary son: “Concerning the Express Bike Networks, I remind the President of the Metropolis that the distribution of achievements stems from a reciprocal agreement, signed in April 2019. That he regrets it today is at the very least surprising. This cannot hide the latecomers of Toulouse Métropole in the deployment of the network for which it has taken responsibility.”
The hatchet still seems far from being buried. Latest twist to date, Pierre Espluglas, a close friend of Jean-Luc Moudenc, deputy mayor of Toulouse in charge of museums, attacked the city council to the sensitive issue of the reception of unaccompanied minors: “This file is a competence of the Department and not of the city. If we took over the device (the Tourelles accommodation center, editor’s note) it is on an experimental basis. The city decided to close this site because the situation had become untenable. It is now up to the Departmental Council to assume its responsibilities insofar as it has jurisdiction over unaccompanied minors.”
This new pass of arms between the two strong men of Haute-Garonne is not very surprising to some months of the presidential election. Their disagreements are often revived as exams approach.
Three years ago, Jean-Luc Moudenc and Georges Méric were intensely opposed on the subject of the aborted project of metropolisation. It was then a question of creating a community with a special status for the Metropolis of Toulouse, with competences of both a department and a metropolis, on the model of what was done in Lyon. The mayor of Toulouse was in favor of the project, when the president of the departmental council challenged it.