How Emmanuelle Wargon attacks French housing?

Nicolas Beytout 07:56 am, October 18, 2021

Nicolas Beytout returns this morning to the controversy that took place this weekend on the remarks made by Emmanuelle Wargon, the Minister of Housing.

A Minister of Housing who demolishes the dream of 75% of the French (that is to say to have a single-family house), it is not trivial. It is as if an army general went to war denouncing the use of firearms. Or, closer to us, as if a butcher advised against the consumption of meat, on the grounds that it is "ecological, economic and social nonsense". Because that is the essence of this affair: Emmanuelle Wargon affirmed that the construction of individual houses is "ecological, economic and social nonsense", adding that "the ideal of the French, this dream built for them in the 70s, is no longer tenable ". In other words, we stuffed the head of the average Frenchman with promises of a pavilion with a garden, finished, the party is over. Not trivial, as a position ...

It immediately triggered a lot of reactions.

The controversy swelled so much that the minister had to withdraw her remarks, and delete the video in which she was lecturing all these French dreamers of well-being. In fact, she explained that she had not said what it was understood she had said, that her words had been caricatured, and that she "very clearly" supported the detached house. In fact, what is very clear is what she was saying two days before, defending what she calls the concept of a "happy intensity" city. It's great, the happy intensity, it's real estate in a care-bear way, terraced houses, the ideal of workers' lodges from the 1950s, all in the name of ecology, of course. Because all this reasoning is done in the name of the programmed end of the artificialization of soils,a clever word (as ecologists like to make) to say no to the expansion of construction to the detriment of green spaces. This blunder by Emmanuelle Wargon is another illustration of the difficulty that some within the government have in defending an environmental policy that is not punitive. Educated by the yellow vests crisis, Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex are however currently fully mobilized on the issue of purchasing power in the face of soaring fuel prices. By following Emmanuelle Wargon's reasoning and applying it to energy, the Minister could have said that the dream of the automobile was no longer tenable. Not very political, as a position ...This blunder by Emmanuelle Wargon is another illustration of the difficulty that some within the government have in defending an environmental policy that is not punitive. Educated by the yellow vests crisis, Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex are however currently fully mobilized on the issue of purchasing power in the face of soaring fuel prices. By following Emmanuelle Wargon's reasoning and applying it to energy, the Minister could have said that the dream of the automobile was no longer tenable. Not very political, as a position ...This blunder by Emmanuelle Wargon is another illustration of the difficulty that some within the government have in defending an environmental policy that is not punitive. Educated by the yellow vests crisis, Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex are however currently fully mobilized on the issue of purchasing power in the face of soaring fuel prices. By following Emmanuelle Wargon's reasoning and applying it to energy, the Minister could have said that the dream of the automobile was no longer tenable. Not very political, as a position ...Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex are however currently fully mobilized on the issue of purchasing power in the face of soaring fuel prices. By following Emmanuelle Wargon's reasoning and applying it to energy, the Minister could have said that the dream of the automobile was no longer tenable. Not very political, as a position ...Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex are however currently fully mobilized on the issue of purchasing power in the face of soaring fuel prices. By following Emmanuelle Wargon's reasoning and applying it to energy, the Minister could have said that the dream of the automobile was no longer tenable. Not very political, as a position ...

Many Internet users have criticized the minister herself for living in a single-family house in the Paris suburbs.

I let you imagine what the social networks have conveyed as messages, between irony and hate.

One might not attach importance to it, but it is a very unwelcome illustration of the "do what I say, not what I do" syndrome.

This is another unfortunate aspect of Emmanuelle Wargon's blunder: it is a good way to fuel the populist current and anti-elite sentiment.

In any case, from someone who claims to be left and who wants to lead the left wing of the En Marche majority, it is not a success ...

Okay, but all in all, can't we plead a clumsy language, or a shortcut in a reasoning on the town planning of tomorrow?

Yes, of course.

But a few months before the presidential election, while we can clearly feel a hyper-prudence on the part of the government which seeks to stifle any outbreak of fire, to postpone anything that may upset this or that part of the population, to put to back, even without wanting it, the France of the owners of the small towns and the countryside, it is really awkward.

This is further proof that Emmanuel Macron was wrong to rejoice that his majority in La République en Marche is populated by amateurs.