Michaël Delafosse (PS) is a candidate for mayor of Montpellier. – Nicolas Bonzom / Agence Maxele Presse
- After the first round of the municipal elections on March 15, there are still three candidates for mayor of Montpellier: Philippe Saurel (DVG), Michaël Delafosse (PS) and Mohed Altrad (DIV).
- Arriving in second position, the socialist Michaël Delafosse has united with the Greens and carries a union list from the left.
- “We must put an end to unnecessary conflicts to breathe new life into Montpellier,” insists the candidate, firing red bullets on the record of mayor Philippe Saurel.
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He came in second place in the first round of municipal elections in Montpellier with 16.66% of the votes cast. Michaël Delafosse (PS) seems to benefit from a good dynamic, at the head of a union list from the left. Allied with the Communist Party, then in the interval between the two EELV environmentalists, this 42-year-old professor of geo-geography in college will try to overtake the outgoing mayor Philippe Saurel (DVG, 19.11% ) and keep Mohed Altrad (DIV, 13.30%) at a distance.
Kléber Mesquida (PS), president of the department of Hérault, and Carole Delga (PS), president of the Occitanie region, came to support you. Is it a way of showing that, if you are elected mayor, will there be harmony between the territories?
The current mayor has unnecessarily cultivated conflicts. First at the metropolis of Montpellier, when he asked the vice-presidents, mayors of municipalities, to join La République en Marche. If they did not accept, they were no longer vice-presidents. As a result, our metropolis is in conflict and people no longer work together. He also often cultivated conflicts with the region, the department, for reasons serving Montpellier. I would like to bring calm, unifying governance to breathe new life into Montpellier. To carry files, like the tram to the sea.
Delga, Mesquida, Delafosse… Is it the return of the Socialist Party to Montpellier, as your opponents taunt?
What are those who criticize? Where are they on the political spectrum? You talk to me about a “diverse left” candidate [Philippe Saurel] which associates with the former candidate of the right [Jacques Domergue] ? With Patricia Mirallès, who sits at La République en Marche? Would the president of the department and the president of the region be wrong to be on the left? I know where I am. I do not return my jacket, because political expediency does not solve the problems. Those who change sides according to their electoral interests, think of them first instead of thinking of the people. I am consistent in my convictions: I am a leftist.
You mention the tram to the sea, is it not a sea snake that comes out in each election?
But the responsibility of the future mayor is to try to get out of this absurdity of a tram which stops in the middle of a roundabout! If the department and region are involved, we can then conduct a fruitful dialogue with the agglomeration of the Pays de l’Or. We need to put an end to unnecessary conflicts to breathe new life into Montpellier. The State was committed at the time to the tune of 70 million euros to bring the tramway to the sea. I have a reputation for success on so-called insurmountable files: the future of the Rockstore, the loss of social mix at Las Cazes college…
Your flagship measure is the free tram. How will you finance it?
The tram will be free for residents of the metropolis without increasing taxes on the entire mandate. In Montpellier, we could not find 24 million euros to make a measure that meets the thousands of young people, who ask us to act for the climate? For people who cannot make a living from their work or their pension? The cost of our measure is 5% of the city’s budget. In Montpellier, we pay 2,450 euros in taxes on average. Are there some expenses that seem outrageous to you? The 10 million euros wasted to export our waste, without a strategy, in Marseille or Spain. Either we continue mismanagement, or we make the choice of tax redistribution on a virtuous measure for the ecology.
How do you respond to the many experts and the Senate report, according to which free transport is counterproductive for high-performance networks, such as that of Montpellier?
If the Senate were a progressive, innovative and ambitious assembly for our country, it would be known … We will set up free transport, but we will not do that. We will create a policy in favor of pedestrians, because there are many streets without sidewalks in Montpellier. We are going to have a policy for cycling. We had to wait for the virus for there to be cycle paths! We have 300 days of sunshine a year, great potential! We give ourselves six months in the making. This will be part of a global policy, to offer residents an alternative to the automobile.
These temporary cycle paths are hell for motorists. Do you want to keep them? And how much space do you want to leave in the car?
I want to make other modes of transport alternative to the car desirable. Let us find an image of the past, the path of schoolchildren. That we can feel safe so that the children can go to school on foot, to college. We can favor a rental-access system for electrically assisted bikes, as Rennes does. Bike paths must also be maintained, as well as bus lanes on their own sites. There will be reductions in 2×2 lanes, in a number of areas. We will go to a city 30 [km/h], on a large majority of the city’s axes, except the major axes.
This also raises the question of bypassing Montpellier. A stumbling block with the Greens, with whom you have made an alliance between the two towers …
No, a different point of appreciation. The link [contournement nord], the department realizes it. The East deviation, the department realizes it. And the western bypass will be done, because it is the responsibility of the State, which must finance it. The metropolis, for its part, must finance a policy in favor of bicycles, pedestrians, buses on their own sites. I will defend the urban boulevard to the west of the metropolis, because it is necessary to evacuate the transit traffic.
Another difference with your environmental allies: the new stadium…
I am in favor of the stadium project, led by the president [Laurent] Nicollin. I think professional sport is changing its model. Professional clubs want to master their tool, with 100% private funding. We must accompany them in this spirit. This is why I proposed relocating the stadium to Ode à la mer, a project I want to postpone. And, unlike others, it is not a conviction that came out a fortnight ago!
In 2011, you voted for it, this Ode à la mer project…
In 2011, the community assembly voted for the creation of a ZAC to treat the Fenouillet area [dont les commerces sont installés en zone inondable]. But who signed on December 15, 2014 the constitution of two Odysseums? But who signs the promise of sale to Frey [le groupe qui devait réaliser la partie commerciale d’Ode à la mer], creating Odysseum twice? Named after… Shopping Promenade, a stab in the center of the city! He is mayor of Montpellier. Fifteen days before the second round of municipal elections, adjourning it is not serious!
Why not build the stadium in Cambaceres?
Because it will cost extremely expensive in Cambacérès, in infrastructure. In Ode à la mer, there is already line 3 of the tram, with two stops. There are already artificial surfaces, where there are parking lots. We support the establishment of the French Tech hall and the Montpellier Business School. However, part of the 100 ha will be devoted to a new green lung. Agroforestry work shows that planting trees there can help refresh the city.
You promised to green the Place de la Comédie. How? ‘Or’ What ?
Very good engineering studies show that it is possible. A few parking spaces will have to be sacrificed to accommodate the trees, at the first level of the Comédie car park, and on the left side, there is a median, which can be used. I believe that we will gain in quality of life. The Comedy should not only be a place of passage, but also a place of meetings. Georges Frêche [ancien maire de Montpellier] pedestrianized the Comedy and the city center. Last year, it was 46.5 ° C on the square. It is time for our magnificent Place de la Comédie to be green. Let there be shade, be it refreshed, shaded. This announces our plan to plant 50,000 trees in the city during the decade.
Then assistant to town planning, you notably launched the constructions of “21st century follies” in urban wasteland. Is this not concreting?
You think it was a mistake for Montpellier? It brought money to the town, and ensured its influence on the whole planet [L’arbre blanc a reçu de nombreuses récompenses dans des concours mondiaux de référence]. It is not nothing to be proud of a city. Concreting? But who made Montpellier a sort of far-west for promoters? Anyone who has had the opportunity to revise the PLU for six years [Plan local d’urbanisme] and still hasn’t. I propose that town planning be a concerted town planning, and that we stop leaving small houses to destroy …
You wish to register Montpellier as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Isn’t it ambitious when Nîmes – whose heritage is quite different – failed in its attempt?
In Nîmes, they are not there yet, but they have already made so much effort! Today, in Nîmes, the quality of public space, the treatment of waste, the question of safety seem to be better treated than in Montpellier. And I still have a lot of pride for my city. We need to have this level of ambition for a UNESCO label. We are going to pull the city center up. Here, for 800 years, we have been teaching medicine. Great progress has been made there, and the walls and stones speak.
Montpellier is often decried as dirty. What do you propose ?
Management needs to be completely overhauled. We will rework on the contract, make those responsible for cleaning responsible. The current mayor, he has promised a lot, but not very much. There will be a referent per district, dedicated to cleanliness, known to all, who will know the terrain. An unnamed war will be waged against incivility. I tell you, if you throw a cigarette butt, there will be a fine. We cannot be irresponsible of public space. We will strengthen the sorting capacity of the city center.
What about insecurity?
I intend to be a mayor who protects. The current mayor’s record is dramatic. He spends his time saying that it is not him, that it is the state. But after all, who has the police power, if not the mayor? The municipal police will be a local police force, attached to each district, known to all, who will work in harmony with the national police. Thirty officers will be dedicated to the transport police. We offer in spaces linked to social housing – where there are sometimes problems – a dedicated brigade, to fight against this incivility. I propose the creation of a family rights and duties council: when a young person is at fault, we must be able to dialogue with his family.
