By akademiotoelektronik, 29/04/2022

“Aerial should no longer be part of childhood dreams”: new controversy in a city run by the Greens

And one more controversy for the Greens. After Bordeaux, Lyon and Strasbourg, it is the turn of the ecological town hall of Poitiers to be under fire from critics. In question, this time, the words of the mayor, Léonore Moncond'huy, on aviation. An excerpt from the town's city council, held last Monday, has surfaced on social media in the heart of the Easter weekend.

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We find the city councilor announcing the gradual abolition of subsidies allocated to the city's flying clubs, while justifying: "It's sad, but air travel should no longer be part of children's dreams today. .” Léonore Moncond'huy was responding to an elected LREM, Isabelle Chedaneau, who recalled that the flying club associations "allowed young Poitevins to pass the aeronautical initiation certificate and hosted the 'Dreams of kids' operation". An annual event that allows children with disabilities to take a ride by plane.

Quickly, the controversy went viral. The environmentalist mayor has been accused of wanting to dictate the dreams of children. On Twitter, the Minister of Transport - and former airline pilot - Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, expressed his indignation by quoting the aviator Saint-Exupéry: "Make your life a dream and a dream a reality", which was, according to him, "far from these authoritarian and moribund rantings".

“It's curious, this ability to say how to think, what to love, what should move us or should make us dream. And to forget that human progress is the fruit of dreams and freedom”, also lamented Marc Fesneau, the minister in charge of relations with Parliament. On the right, Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Île-de-France region, denounced the “totalitarianism” of the Greens, accusing them of “depriving children of their dreams” and even wanting to “re-educate” them.

Even on the left, where criticism against environmentalists is usually less strong, criticism has been forthcoming. “Hello Poitiers! Dreams are always free. Signed Icare “, mocked the LFI candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “Dreaming is freedom. To evoke dreams from which children must be preserved amounts to questioning this freedom. We will continue to dream, and even of the green plane, ”said Valérie Rabault, the president of the socialist group in the Assembly.

Under pressure, Léonore Moncond'huy wanted to put out the fire by posting a video on Saturday on social networks. “The heart of my commitment has always been popular education. This is why we are committed today to a global and coherent project, so that each child can have access to a desirable, smiling and responsible future", underlined the mayor, recalling that the "first decision" of his majority was to “implement a vacation plan for everyone”.

In his entourage, we regret an "unfair" controversy with regard to his action for young Poitevins. “She is simply saying that today's children are not going to have the same imagination as the children of thirty years ago. For example, what young girl still wants to be an air hostess today? ”, blows one of his advisers. At the national level, the Greens are also united. Starting with their leader, Julien Bayou: "Yet another controversy where the challenge is above all to attack environmentalists," he replies.

Hard blow for the Greens

For a party seeking to prove its credibility in the run-up to 2022, however, this new controversy represents yet another blow. Especially since the Greens were just coming out of another thorny affair in Strasbourg. The ecologist mayor, Jeanne Barseghian, had accepted at the end of March the “principle of a subsidy” of more than 2.5 million euros to the Eyyub Sultan mosque – in accordance with the concordat tradition of the territory. The federation behind the project, Millî Görüs, close to the Turkish power, had nevertheless refused to sign the charter of principles for Islam in France.

Earlier, the town hall also refused to recognize the definition of anti-Semitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, judging that the terms used prohibited any criticism of Israel. To defend themselves, environmentalists had again accused the government of escalating these controversies. “This proves that the executive fears us for 2022. If you are the target, it means that you are strong”, underlines an EELV official. Before adding: “But unfortunately it always leaves traces…”

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Environmentalists have already paid a heavy price. At the start of the 2020 school year, the words of the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, on the old giant Christmas tree in Bordeaux described as a “dead tree” had been disapproved by 72% of the French. 68% had also condemned the remarks of the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, on the Tour de France which he considered "macho" and "polluting". Already a bad signal for this party traditionally appreciated by the French, and reinforced by its good score in the Europeans in 2019 (third with more than 13% of the vote) and the conquest of several large cities in the municipal elections of 2020. These successive controversies could well crack the "dream" of the Greens of a victory in 2022.

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