Interview. Toulouse. ZFE: Jean-Luc Moudenc fears “a social crisis of the yellow vests type, episode 2”
Through Guillaume Laurent
Published on
While Low Emission Zone (ZFE), which aims to prohibit access to Toulouse to the most polluting vehicles, experienced a new tightening in the 1uh January 2023, the mayor was very critical of the state during his vows to the press. Recalling that “it is [lui] who set up the EPZs”, Jean-Luc Moudenc had indeed called on the government to “take its responsibilities” and to double the aid authorized to individuals for the purchase of clean vehicles.
The following day, the mayor of Toulouse was received by Christophe BechuMinister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, who offered to co-host, with an elected ecologist from Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), a working group to inform the government of the difficulties encountered around EPZs. In an interview given to Toulouse Newsthe aedile explains.
“There is a kind of anarchy in the organization of EPZs”
News: What was the mission entrusted to you by the minister?
Jean-Luc Moudenc: “He asked me to lead, with my colleague Anne-Marie Jean, vice-president EELV of the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg, a working group with officials from the associative and entrepreneurial world, but also representatives of all the agglomerations concerned by the ZFEs Our group will look into the difficulties that we encounter for the ZFEs already implemented, or that we foresee for those that are announced by 2025. Because we have been alerting the government: as we move forward in the EPZs, we measure the extent of the problems and difficulties.
We had a meeting on this subject with Christophe Béchu in October. At the end, the minister showed openness and told us that he agreed to think about solutions together.
“ZFEs meet a real public health objective, since there are 48,000 deaths a year due to pollution. But the methods developed by the State, also without consultation with local elected officials – while unilaterally instructing to set up these EPZs – problem posed, and they must be reviewed”.
What other proposals will you defend?
J.-LM: “I call for a deeper understanding of the notion of polluting vehicle. Because if we all agree on the purpose of these ZFEs, the law has left elected officials no choice: it is the Crit’Air sticker, so the “vehicle age, which determines whether the vehicle is prohibited or not. This is a point to be reworked, because there are Crit’Air 4 vehicles which will be banned in the ZFEs even though they are very well maintained, often by small riders, and unlike Crit’Air 2 vehicles which will be authorized, but poorly maintained, heavily used and polluting.
I propose that we can allow the owners of vehicles that would be prohibited, to produce a technical control which demonstrates that their vehicle is less polluting, or as much, as an authorized vehicle, because it is well maintained. This would save them the ban on driving or the obligation to buy a new vehicle. This would be a measure with strong social resonance, but also a sign of confidence sent to vehicle technical inspection professionals. The Crit’Air sticker is an overly exclusive, technocratic criterion, which has created side effects, when we could trust qualified specialists”.
“The rest to be paid is too important for some”
And your third idea?
J.-LM: “The third subject that deserves to be worked on is the level of aid. In a ZFE where a motorist can combine state, regional and intermunicipal aid, despite all that, the rest is too high for some. Low-income households, but also small entrepreneurs and craftsmen, are unable to assume this remaining charge. We are therefore asking the State to double its aid.
“The ZFEs were created by the State, from the moment it is the one who created an obligation, and which generated a new expense, it must assume the additional expenses which require it for the most modest and the middle classes Finally, I also want to defend administrative simplification, because today, ZFEs are complicated”.
What do you mean ?
J.-LM: “Since the State has instructed the 43 agglomerations in question to set up the ZFEs, I would like a one-stop shop to be created at the level of each of these territories, to manage the various financial aids there, in order to facilitate the process.
Work on the harmonization of aid is also necessary, because today we have different allocation conditions from one public authority to another, on the same territory. In Toulouse, for example, the criteria grids are not the same between the Metropolis, the Region and the State. Public authorities must work together to harmonize them, even if the quantities may differ.
We should also broaden the range of aid so as not to force the citizen to go for a single model, because we know very well that the purchase of an electric vehicle is more expensive, and that by helping it, we are above all helping those who have the most resources. We could also support thermics, by helping retrofitting, or re-engining, which is less expensive for the user.
But I insist: these are ideas that I have in mind, and it will not be representative of the proposals that will emerge from the working group.
Do you consider that the social cursor of EPZs should be changed?
J.-LM: “We must have more social EPZs. My concern, which is moreover shared by many elected colleagues, beyond political divisions, is that we must ensure that we reconcile ecology and social issues.
“We don’t want the ZFEs to create social exclusion. However, as they stand, the ZFEs are not sufficiently social, the methods must be changed”.
Demonstrations, petitions… A certain sling settled around the ZFE in Toulouse. What inspires you?
J.-LM: “I have been telling the government for several months that if we do not improve the terms of the EPZs, based on the ground, we risk creating a social crisis of the type yellow vests, episode number 2. I am not surprised what’s going on. When you’re in the field, you can feel it coming. Except that when the program decided on that, at the end of 2019, it didn’t take our opinion! The brutal, imposed and antisocial transition, It is not possible !”
The opposition? “I thought they were people of conviction, but they are opportunists”
In Toulouse, the opposition called on you to postpone the ZFE for one year for vehicles stamped Crit’Air 3, what do you say?
J.-LM: “The opposition has changed its mind. Look at the reports of the debates or public sessions that we had with the same elected officials, they said completely the opposite, that we were not going fast enough, that we were not banning not enough things… I thought they were people of convictions, but they are opportunists, who have decided to follow discontent like sheep.
I prefer another attitude: to weigh in on things, with elected officials from all over France, and of all political persuasions, including members of EELV who themselves want to find solutions, without political postures. So it leaves me cold.”
You are not answering the question. What do you think of their proposal to postpone the ZFE for a year for the Crit’Air 3?
J.-LM: “You have to be consistent. If I were to answer your question, whatever my answer, I would be contradicting what I advocate. I cannot say that I am defending a harmonization of EPZs at the national level , and take a position on a very specific subject on the Toulouse ZFE, at the risk of connoting the work that will be carried out”.
When will they know the conclusions of your mission?
J.-LM: “We must submit our report to the government at the end of the semester, this gives us the time necessary to work on it. I have no decision-making power, we may have to change the law, but I welcome the openness of the government and of Minister Christophe Béchu”.
What will be your thoughts?
J.-LM: “It’s not me who sets the topics, but the working group that has just been set up. All of this is very collective. That said, on a personal level, I have a lot of ideas, and I I’m going to defend four in particular.
The first is to see if there can be a minimum of harmonization from one ZFE to another. Because the first were created in the 11 most important metropolises of France by a law of November 2019, but a second law, in August 2021, created 32 more. On arrival, by 2025 we will have EPZs in all agglomerations with more than 150,000 inhabitants. It is important to remember this, because when you have 43, territories close to each other will be affected.
At the same time, latitudes were left to the elected representatives of these agglomerations, charged by the State with implementing the ZFEs, on the aid to be established, the amounts, etc. However, some EPZs prohibit Crit’Air 4 from one date, others from another date. Vehicles are exempted in one ZFE, not in another… There is a kind of anarchy in the organization of ZFEs with conflicting rules. In my opinion, there needs to be at least partial harmonization, so that it is more practical for the motorist. Because you have to put yourself in their shoes: if they go from one EPZ to another, and the rules are not the same, they no longer understand anything! Without harmonizing, we will complicate the lives of the people concerned.
And then, since the two laws that I mentioned, another idea emerged and was taken up by the President of the Republic, it is ecological planning. My personal feeling is that this concept of ecological planning must be implemented on the EPZs”.
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