The Prime Minister said that she assumed “exceptions” on the routes operated in France, ensuring that she “always favored the lowest-emission transport”.
The controversy is making noise this Monday, September 4 and is gaining a little momentum: Elizabeth Borne and her Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, have chosen to connect Rennes to Paris by plane. Information confirmed by the entourage of the Prime Minister to several media, including France Info. While the government wanted to highlight its announcements for teachers and students during this new school year, it is for sure this information that will be the most commented on. And for good reason: the executive is clearly not very comfortable with the preference for rail, now considered an imperative in the fight against global warming.
The entourage of Elisabeth Borne gave some elements of justification to France Info: The Prime Minister “always favors the lowest emissions transport for her trips, but there she had an imperative in Paris in the middle of the afternoon, going back and forth with another means would have been more complicated. We always favor the least carbon-intensive means possible! Car or train when we can ensure safety. From time to time, we make exceptions, “said a collaborator of the head of government.
On social networks, several political figures mock the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Education. The tone and content of the criticisms substantially echoes, on the whole, that of Cyrielle Châtelain, president of the environmental group in the National Assembly, written on Twitter: “When we have really become aware of the climate catastrophe, we do not take the plane when you can make the trip in 1h30 with the train.