Hello Marc Pere. You are the co-president of the opposition group RMC Alternative Métropole Citoyenne in Toulouse Métropole. You are also mayor of the Union. You say that the metro line which should connect Colomiers to Labège will not open in 2028, but in 2030. What allows you to say that?

There is a document that was produced in October. It is written. The money that was issued, i.e. 40 million to operate a new metro line, in the previous document was in 2009, and in this one, the 40 million are no longer in 2029 but in 2030.

** This is not what Sacha Briand, who is vice-president of Toulouse Métropole in charge of finance, says. This is what he says: “** All this is not serious, it’s buzz. It’s because in reality, they are against the third line but do not dare to assume it. This study budgetary sustainability, it is screened by the rating agency which intervenes every year to assign a rating to Tisséo as well as to Toulouse Métropole and which allows all this data.

Sacha Briand talks about the financial aspect, we will come back to this. But first he says that you are against the third line and that you do not assume. What do you answer?

It’s simple, we are for a third metro line. It is said that the massive investment that will be made in the metro will hamper any other operation. We are for a balanced approach to the territory. Urgent solutions are needed. This third line is not enough. We say we can do it. We know how to read. We know how to count. It is said that in this document, there are errors because we know how to make additions. And what we say above all to Mr. Briand is that if he is so sure of himself that he seems to be saying it, that he present this document and this study to the Metropolitan Council tomorrow, the 8 December, it will not. The first study in 2018 was presented. The second, in 2019, was presented to the metropolitan council, i.e. to the people’s elected representatives. Since 2020, there have been two studies. They are no longer presented to the metropolitan council.

It is serious what you say Marc Péré this morning. You say that roughly Toulouse Métropole, the majority does not present sincere accounts and that they lie.

Absolutely I say that in this document which was produced and which is not presented before the metropolitan council, there is a certain page where they say that a sum makes a certain sum and three pages after the same sum has lost 400 million euros. I say they cut 200 million euros of investment in this document. They removed 200 million euros of investment in the bus lines of the future. So I say this document is insincere and I say there are colossal errors, 377 million errors. You just need to know how to add. And I am simply saying that if we are so sure that the debate will take place, we should present it to the metropolitan council and we will present our arguments. And on the third line of the metro, it is unbearable that people say that we are against the third line of the metro. We say this third metro line is too big. We do two in one, it is 27 kilometers long. So far, Toulouse has made two metro lines, one of fourteen kilometers and one of thirteen kilometers. Because it takes money and time to do.

On the 200 million euros, it’s a bit technical, but Sacha Briand says that the accounts were budgeted at Tisséo and that they are now in the accounts of the metropolis. On this question of the line being too long, what do you propose? to shorten for example?

From the beginning, we have said that we need a third metro line and that it is a good solution because the metro works well. It is said that Colomiers-Matabiau, for example, would be a good solution. It is said that in February 2014, when President Jean-Luc Moudenc proposed a third metro line, remember, it was 17 kilometers and 1.4 billion.

So you prefer to go back to what was originally proposed?

In the meantime, we have gone from 17 kilometers to 28 kilometers and we have gone from 1.4 billion to more than 3 billion. We say we can’t afford it. We want a balanced approach. People are in pain. People are in traffic, they lose tens of minutes a day. It prevents them from going home, from seeing their families. And during this time, we reject the idea of ​​an RER, we put billions in one in a metro that will not solve the problems. And in doing so, what we are saying is that for 25 to 30 years, we will have no more money to develop other public transport.

But you say you also want an independent audit, does that cost money, Marc Péré?

When we have someone in front of us, who tells us that we are making a buzz and saying nonsense. When it says in the document that was produced in October that two plus two equals three, how come we don’t want an independent audit? The people opposite us tell us two plus two, that’s three, it’s written. The errors are obvious, indisputable, your journalist colleagues, when we show them, say yes, 400 million are missing there. And faced with that, we have people who say it, they make a buzz, they are against the third metro station, it’s not honest, it’s not a responsible attitude.

We heard your anger Marc Péré, mayor of the Union, co-president of the Alternative Métropole citoyenne group in Toulouse and Métropole. The continuation tomorrow with the metropolitan council which promises to be agitated.