ZFE, Macron, 3rd metro line… We take you back to the events of 2022 in Toulouse
By Anthony Assemat
Published on
Here are the main events that marked the news in the Pink City and Haute-Garonne in 2022.
#1. European ministers spoke about space in Toulouse
Emmanuel Macron was at Toulouse Wednesday, February 16, 2022. The President of the Republic delivered a speech on the sidelines of the meeting of European space ministers. This working day was organized as part of the French presidency of the European Union (PFUE)).
Two main themes were discussed during this “informal Competitiveness Council”. The first concerned “space traffic management and the European connectivity constellation project”. Secondly, the ministers carried “the ambitions of the European Space Agency for the protection of space resources and rapid and resilient responses to crisis situations”.
Arrival in Toulouse, the president translated to his audience, saying “very happy to find you in this beautiful region which is dear to me and this beautiful city of Toulouse whose destiny is linked among other things to the space adventure, and to all the successes” that go with it. The Head of State praised the virtues of “mastery of space” and of the “ecosystem” of space, particularly in the Pink City.
In addition to the space command center, which will be installed in Toulousethe president took the opportunity to recall, that day, that the Pink City will also soon host a NATO center of excellence for space, which should enable Europe to “progress towards a European space strategy”. The challenge is to “regulate aggressiveness and the subjects of conflict”, he gauged.
#2. War in Ukraine: Toulouse in solidarity…
2022 was obviously marked by the war in Ukraine declared by Russia on February 24.
A huge outpouring of solidarity with the Ukrainian people was orchestrated in Toulouse and the surrounding area. Collecting medicines and food of all kinds, welcoming refugees… The Pink City has shown its most beautiful face since the beginning of the conflict.
At the start of the conflict, the prefecture announced that it 583 applications for temporary protection had been filed in Haute-Garonne in a month between the start of the invasion and Wednesday, March 23.
#3. … but Tugan Sokhiev is leaving the National Capitol Orchestra
This was one of the side effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The conductor Tugan Sokhiev announced on Sunday March 6 that he had decided to step down as director of the Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse, but also of the Bolshoi in Moscow (Russia).
He directed since 2008 the very famous National Capitol Orchestra (ONCT) which makes the Pink City – a city twinned with… Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital… – shine all over the world through the quality of the concerts and the musicians who make it up. A way of making it understood that he does not take a position for one side or the other in the war in Ukraine.
Here is what he said at the time:
“I must say the most important thing: I have never supported and will always be against any conflict in any form. If some people question my desire for peace and think that me, as a musician, I can talk about anything other than peace on our planet is shocking and offensive to me.”
The mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, had enjoined Tugan Sokhiev to “speak to Toulouse residents about the current situation. He knows that we are regularly questioned”.
We know, since December 13, 2022, the identity of the replacement of Tugan Sokhiev. This is the young Finnish Tarmo Peltokoski, 22 years old.
#4. 2022, launch year of the ZFE
The year was marked by the setting up of a potentially explosive subject in the months to come in 2023: the Low Emission Zone (ZFE), which will gradually ban the most polluting vehicles from city centers major French cities, including Toulouse.
let’s remember that the establishment of the ZFE is gradual. As a reminder, its perimeter includes all of Toulouse within the ring road, plus a small part of Colomiers and Tournefeuille, i.e. a perimeter of 72 km².
Can no longer circulate in the ZFE:
- Since 1uh March 2022: vans, vans and heavy goods vehicles Crit’air sticker 5 and unclassified
- Since 1uh September 2022: the same Crit’air 4 certified utility vehicles and trucks
Could no longer circulate in the ZFE:
- From 1uh January 2023: all motorized vehicles certified Crit’air 4, 5 and unclassified
- As of January 1, 2024: all motorized vehicles until Crit’air 3. On this date, only vehicles certified Crit’air 2.1 and electric or hydrogen vehicles will be authorized to circulate inside the zone.
According to Toulouse Métropole estimates, 47,000 vehicles could therefore be banned from circulation from 1uh January 2024.
#5. Climate: a very hot year
2022 was marked by intense heat in Toulouse. Long elevated to the rank of the hottest summer in history and defined as a benchmark in terms of heat waves, 2003 almost fell by the wayside in 2022. It happened… at 0.1°C in Toulouse.
“Over the whole of the summer, the average maximum temperature is 31.5°C in Toulouse. In 2003, we were at 31.6°C“, revealed Pascal Boureau, former forecaster for Météo France, at the end of August 2022.
As regards the average minimum temperatures, the difference is barely greater: 18.6°C this summer 2022, against 19°C in 2003.
As of Saturday October 22, 2022, we were already at 134e day of the year where the maximum temperature reached 25°C in the Pink City. Never seen…
Also, the month of October 2022 has broken records in France and, in Occitania, since the Météo France readings have existed. A sweetness that even lasted until the end of the year.
#6. The works of the 3e metro line are launched
On December 16, 2013, Jean-Luc Moudenccandidate for the municipal elections in Toulouse, facing the outgoing mayor Pierre Cohenproposed to create a third metro line of 17 kilometers between the Airbus factories of Saint-Martin-du-Touch and Montaudran for an amount of 1.7 billion euros.
He was elected mayor in March 2014, thanks in particular to this proposal.
Thursday, December 15, 2022, nine years to the day, Jean-Luc Moudenc, reappointed to the 2020 elections, partly on securing this major project, subsequently launched the construction site of this 3e lines, renamed line C. “This is the most important project in the history of our agglomeration”, assured the president of Tisséo Jean-Michel Lattes.
A project whose first civil engineering site was launched opposite the Stade Ernest-Wallon in Sept-Deniers. This first project involves building an emergency well between the two future Sept-Deniers and Boulevard de Suisse stations, near the ring road.
Following this official launch, the construction site will really accelerate in 2023. There will then be 40 construction sites all along the route of line C.
And at the end of 2023, five tunnel boring machines will land in Toulouse to start digging the tunnel at five different points.
#7. The Saint-Pierre bridge returned to pedestrians
The summer of 2022 was marked by experimenting with the pedestrianization of the Saint-Pierre bridge.
Closed to cars and only open to pedestrians and cyclists between mid-July and mid-September 2022, st peter’s bridge will probably adopt this configuration soon, definitively from July 2023.
#8. La Grave reopens
After several years of work, the Saint-Joseph Chapel in La Grave has reopened to the public on the occasion of Heritage Days, September 17, 2022.
Severe is quite simply the most photographed monument in the city of Toulouse. Located on the left bank of the Garonne, in the Saint-Cyprien district, La Grave – due to its location, its history, and its magnificent “Roman-style” dome recognizable from afar – is a building particularly appreciated by Toulouse residents, who like in particular admire its silhouette from the quays of the Garonne, during sunsets.
#9. Scopelec in danger
Tuesday September 27, 2022, Scopelec, the oldest Scop in France, was placed in receivership. Result ? 2,323 jobs are at risk, including 500 in Occitania (the company is deployed in Sorèze in the Tarn and Saint-Orens in Haute-Garonne) for what symbolizes one of the largest social plans in France.
Beginning of December 2022, six takeover projects had been submitted. On Friday December 16, 2022, the Scopelec group sent an open letter to the President of the Republic. The reason ? Asks him to support the takeover project called “Newscope”, carried by Carlos Verkaeren, the current chairman of the board of the largest workers’ cooperative in France.
It is finally the Ciret group which was appointed this Wednesday, December 28, 2022 by the commercial court of Lyon (Rhone).
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