French Ulez to be scrapped in victory for hard-right

Times

3 days ago

Low-emission zones in Paris and other cities are to be scrapped after a parliamentary vote responding to a popular backlash against environmental restrictions in France.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the hard-right National Rally, and the radical left France Unbowed both claimed victory after joining forces, along with conservatives, to abolish a six-year-old law that has barred higher polluting vehicles from city centres.
The victory, by 98 votes to 51, came hours after a defeat for environmental campaigners as a court decided to allow work to restart on the highly contested A69 motorway in southwestern France. In February a court ordered a halt to construction after two years of environmental protests and objections from farmers and rural residents in the path of the 38-mile motorway between Toulouse and Castres.
Backed by 80 per cent of the public, according to polls, the opponents of the urban 'Zones à faibles émissions' — equivalent to Britain's Ulez — argued that they discriminate against poorer car owners. The zones, which require all vehicles to display windscreen stickers with their emission class, ban diesel cars built before 2006 and more modern vehicles in periods of high air pollution. Fines of €68 are imposed on drivers in zones prohibited to their vehicles, although they are often not enforced.
'This is a defeat for the punitive environmental campaigners, the ones who are constantly hammering the French people to no effect,' Le Pen said. France Unbowed saluted 'a triumph against an unjust regulation'.
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The conservative Republicans, who are part of the coalition government, defended their opposition to the zones. 'Everyone is in favour of improving air quality. But we think that it can't be done at the price of social exclusion,' Ian Boucard, a party MP, told parliament.
The vote was a blow to President Macron's wing in the conservative-centrist government, which campaigned to keep the law that he introduced in 2019 to curb fine particles and other pollutants in Paris, Marseilles, Lyons and a dozen other cities.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the environment minister, deplored the vote and the rejection of a compromise she backed to maintain the zones in Paris and Marseilles. 'Air pollution causes 40,000 premature deaths a year and the low-pollution zones helped reduce these,' she said.
Motoring organisations, meanwhile, cheered the government's defeat of a system that opponents argue creates a social divide, limiting access to urban centres for low-income drivers.
Scrapping the scheme means the government will have to reimburse part of the €3.3 billion in EU funds that have been spent on it this year.
Macron's centrist bloc and the centre-left Socialist parties joined environmental groups in deploring what they see as part of a populist-led rejection of progress towards combating climate change.
Farmers blocked highways and rallied outside parliament this week, demanding that restrictions on pesticides and water use be eased. A bill to do this was eventually defeated on Wednesday.
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The government welcomed the court ruling on the A69 motorway, whose sites were the scene of violent protests for two years until February. Police arrested hundreds, including protesters dragged out of trees that were due to be felled. That month a court accepted opponents' arguments that the motorway should be stopped pending a full trial on their claim that it would inflict unjustified destruction of nature and disrupt the lives of residents in towns and villages in its path.
Philippe Tabarot, the transport minister, called the latest ruling 'a real relief' because the court had accepted that there was a strong economic and social argument in favour of the motorway, he said.
The Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal issued a stay on the February halt and allowed work to resume on the €450 million project pending a full appeal trial within the next 12 months. Atosca, the firm building the toll motorway, is to restart its earth-moving and construction in June and intends to complete the already half-built road next year.
Environmental campaigners said they were stunned by the court reversal and called for protests to resume. Julie Rover, a lawyer for opponents of the A69, said it made no sense to complete the motorway now, laying down miles of asphalt across the countryside. 'There's a risk now that in eight or ten months the court will confirm its cancellation,' she said.