A few weeks ago, in the campaign for the mayor’s chair in Lyon, the 46-year-old ecologist Grégory Doucet had started to wear a jacket and shirt, perhaps preparing for future institutional roles. However, we have not yet arrived at the tie, not even now that he is the new mayor of the third city of France (500 thousand inhabitants and 1.4 million in the metropolitan area), one of the richest and an industrial center that works, led to example to many areas in crisis in the north or east of the country. New to politics (but registered in the green since 2007), Doucet graduated from the business school of Rouen, to work then (for twenty years) only in humanitarian NGOs, also abroad (since 2010 in Handicap International : until a few months ago it managed 500 people and coordinated activities in West Africa). Calm, constructive, the reassuring air, however, has very precise ideas. Also on the Tav.
What do you think of the high-speed train between Lyon and Turin?
«Among our cities there is already a railway infrastructure, which is sufficient, and that is what we should invest in. France has injected too few funds on rail freight transport nationwide. And now they want us to believe that with Tav we will relaunch the business. But it is absurd ».
So what can be done to lighten the weight of traffic on the roads?
«If enhanced, the line that already runs between Lyon and Turin is sufficient for the trains that must circulate there. Here, we invest first there and in the rest of France ».
But the works have already started and are in an advanced state …
«We must not insist on a wrong project. It is the worst choice. We must stop the Tav ».
You, however, as the mayor of Lyon cannot influence this decision. Are you aware of this?
«Of course, I know it doesn’t depend on me, or on the mayor of Turin. It is the two governments and Europe that decide. But now that I’m driving my city, I think I have to say my opinion. “
Some fear that you are a pasdaran of environmentalism. However, just elected, last Sunday, he said that “ecology is not the enemy of the economy, but its best ally”. Do you want to find a compromise with the big industrial groups of Lyon?
“I wouldn’t use that word there. Let’s say that I want to accompany companies towards the ecological transition, we must go together in the same direction. Some are already very busy in this sense, others instead niche and experience strong delays. During the period of confinement, for example, remote work has developed a lot and today many, even in Lyon, want to benefit from this tool. Well, as mayor I want to take measures that favor him, because he can reduce the pressure on public transport and the use of cars ».
Are there any steps you will take immediately?
«To help the world of art and culture, so important for Lyon, also for tourism purposes, with an emergency fund of four million. And allow bars and restaurants to expand on the sidewalks and on public land, to help them in this difficult phase. Then one of our main objectives is to reduce pollution, a big problem in Lyon. We want to make the city 100% viable on foot and by bicycle and to develop small buses on short journeys ».
Lyon has always been a basically centrist city. And in recent years it had become a Macron fief. Who chose you (and it’s an overwhelming majority) voted against the president?
“We haven’t built our campaign against Macron or anything in general. But in a positive way, promising more well-being to citizens and a better quality of life. They want deeds, not words. Of course, the fact that the president launched the “make our planet again” appeal and then spent the last three years doing little for ecology has favored a green candidate like me. Because citizens ask for it, more ecology. In the beginning he had chosen Nicolas Hulot, the most popular environmentalist in France, as minister responsible for the sector. And he left the government slamming the door, saying they didn’t let him work. Now, after the victory of many green candidates for municipalities across France, Macron has already reactivated on the ecological issues the following day. But it is not credible ».
In the second round, she gathered around her a vast left-green coalition, which goes as far as the radical gauche, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France insoumise. There are those who, ironically, compare it to a watermelon, green outside and red inside. It would bring the far left into the palaces of power of the bourgeois Lyon …
“That comparison would appeal to my youngest son, seven years old (ed, he has three in all, the largest has 14), because he loves watermelon. Let’s talk seriously and frankly: given that the aspiration to social justice has accompanied me all my life, I don’t have to be “red”. Ecology is not anyone’s exclusive property. But neither the social ».
–
