More than the rats that have now made the capital’s sad reputation, the new pariahs of Parisian urban space can be summed up by three letters: SUV. It was also to scare them away that Parisians were called to vote on February 4 “for or against the creation of a specific rate for the parking of individual, heavy, bulky, polluting cars.” An exercise in participatory democracy, some would say. On the contrary, it is a striking illustration of everything that can keep the French away from the polls: cynicism and demagoguery.
Because let’s make no mistake, although the organization of such a day cost taxpayers no less than 400,000 euros, the opinion of Parisians actually matters very little to Ms. Hidalgo. She also showed this by imposing her project for a lane reserved for carpooling and public transport on the ring road. The consultation organized to decide the subject in 2023 had nevertheless received no less than 82% unfavorable opinions!
How can we understand that such behavior can benefit from such media indulgence once a few usual ups and downs in the twenty-four hours following these permanent denials of democracy have passed? The vote, thus misguided, is placed in the category of communication tools and in reality allows only one thing for the mayor of Paris: to place the responsibility for the consequences of this simplistic measure on the 3% of registered voters who voted for. What should have been the expression of the voice of the majority is used to become the tyranny of a minority. Poor democracy!
The question put to the vote, as the ridiculous participation proves, is not one of those that Parisians ask themselves on a daily basis. It is more a matter of these ideological whims that the socialist and environmentalist left imposes on them. As proof, the municipality clearly announced its opinion on the question. The debate around the question was reduced to four words on the posters which informed of the consultation, “individual”, “heavy”, “bulky”, “polluting” and the imagination they convey: the car of the rich.
Double blow for this red and green left: drive out this vehicle but also the one who drives it from the capital and who does not vote for it. Yet more than the millionaires, it is more the families and the Parisian and suburban middle classes who will no longer pass the ring road.
Interest dictated by a minority
Because Parisians were consulted not to approve solutions but to legitimize sanctions and point the finger at the culprits designated by the municipality in support of a campaign without debate or contradiction. A simplistic and reductive way of thinking which, far from responding to the challenges of global warming, accumulates technical aberrations and counterproductive measures. This is why certain plug-in hybrid models will be subject, due to the weight of the battery, to extra parking charges while the petrol model will not be affected. Electric SUVs will not escape the rule either and will have to pay the supplement which in reality aims more to replenish the coffers of France’s largest city than to fight against global warming.
This “major democratic crisis” that she denounced at the podium of the Association of Mayors of France a few months ago, Ms. Hidalgo, unfortunately embodies it wonderfully. Interest dictated by a minority, rather than coherent and rational measures based on the general interest. With the consequence, an inaccessible Paris and in economic decline, Parisians in nervous breakdown, and the inevitable collapse of the City of Lights whose last lights risk going out the day after the Olympic Games.
In Paris, however, there is no shortage of challenges: unsanitary conditions illustrated by the proliferation of rats, chronic traffic jams which increase pollution, and very significant delinquency which is not opposed by any armed municipal police. Paris outraged, Paris broken, Paris martyred, but Paris without an SUV! How sad…
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