As in 2014, Nathalie Appéré and Matthieu Theurier joined forces for the second round of municipal elections. - J. Gicquel / 20 Minutes

  • As in 2014, the PS and the Greens will form an alliance for the second round of the municipal elections in Rennes.
  • Despite differences over security or town planning, they unveiled a common program that revolves around ecology, solidarity and democracy.
  • The outgoing mayor announces that if she is re-elected, the Zenith project which is in the pipeline will be abandoned.

A sacred union despite differences. In Rennes, you don't change a winning team. As in 2014, socialists and environmentalists will be hand in hand for the second round of municipal elections. If the opposition has mocked "a game of dupes" and "device agreements", the outgoing majority wanted this Friday to show its cohesion. "We are very far from an alliance of circumstance for electoral needs", assures Nathalie Appéré, arriving in the lead in the first round with 32.77% of the votes. "This project is based on six years of shared experience with values ​​that have never been so convergent," says the outgoing socialist mayor.

"We slept well" ... In Rennes, the left negotiated calmly https://t.co/H813G4RrZB

- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) May 31, 2020

Credited with 25.4% of the vote on the evening of March 15, Matthieu Theurier did not hide the points of friction that exist between the two lists now united. He listed four, in addition to the Zenith project which will be abandoned in the event of a victory ( read box ): the installation of gates in the metro, the extension of the future Palais du commerce, the endowment with an electric pulse pistol for municipal police and the high-rise building that will be built in 2024 in the EuroRennes district. "The first round highlighted these points of divergence, they exist and have not disappeared but we have been able to overcome them", believes Nathalie Appéré who, if elected, will have the last word anyway.

More green and trees in the city

The alliance established, the result is an eight-page joint program which will soon be distributed to Rennes residents. It revolves around three main axes (ecology, solidarity and democracy) which were already present in the programs of the two lists in the first round. "But it is not an addition of measures, it is a program which has been enriched with the contributions of each one", underlined Nathalie Appéré.

Our file on the Municipal 2020

The question of the environment, even more crucial in the post-Covid world, obviously holds a major place with the project of revegetation of the big urban boulevards and the big places of the city, the planting of 30,000 trees on the mandate or the elimination of synthetic pesticides by 2025 on the territory.

Free for children under 26 will wait

On the transport side, the PS and Greens program includes the creation of five “tramway on roads” lines beyond the ring road or the creation of an express bicycle network of 100 kilometers. The free transport for those under 26 that environmentalists demanded, however, will not happen immediately. The Covid crisis has indeed gone through this, inciting elected officials to be very careful. If she is re-elected, Nathalie Appéré plans rather “regular and progressive reductions in the youth tariff” with a first reduction of 25% from the first months of her mandate. "We will then see if we are able to finance this free education," warns the elected socialist.

In the light of the looming economic crisis, Nathalie Appéré and Matthieu Theurier are also highlighting the social aspect of their program with a project to experiment with guaranteed minimum income or the Zero long-term unemployed scheme in priority neighborhoods.

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Zenith's project abandoned

The project is already underway by the metropolis which announced at the end of 2019 that a Zenith-style hall with 10,000 seats would emerge from the ground in 2024 near the Expo Park. But if the list led by Nathalie Appéré is elected on June 28, the project will be definitively abandoned. The outgoing mayor was not opposed to the base, unlike his environmental allies. But the coronavirus crisis made him reconsider his priorities. Instead, it offers a renovation of the Muzik Hall at the Parc Expo.

  • Elections