The mayor of Paris estimated Wednesday that there was "no controversy to have" after the attacks of Parisian rivals Anne Hidalgo, boarded a Falcon and a helicopter in July to surrender on a stage of the Tour de France. After writing July 31 that the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo (PS) had borrowed a Falcon on July 26 to join the 19th stage of the Tour de France in Savoy, the Chained Canard revealed Wednesday that she had "also made a tour in a helicopter ".
The environmental cost of flights pointed out
"It was not a helicopter for Anne Hidalgo," defended the city, explaining to AFP that the mayor of Paris was invited by the Tour de France as "all other mayors". "If the stage is farther than where the Falcon lands, [the guests] take a helicopter to [get there]," pleaded the mayor of Paris, recalling that "it is not we who charter the Falcon ".
Some candidates in Paris for the 2020 municipal elections have pointed out the environmental cost of such flights, opposing the environmental commitment of Anne Hidalgo. "If she is committed to the protection of the environment, she could have taken the train to set the example," argues in a statement Gaspard Gantzer, independent candidate. "Today, it takes sobriety, restraint in the exercise of public functions."
"Stink ball"
Antonio Duarte, the ally of the former government spokesman and candidate LREM Benjamin Griveaux, calculated that this trip was "100 tons of kerosene, the equivalent of 12 million kilometers by diesel car Crit'Air 5" . Stressing that "the same trip could be made by TGV and electric car in 4 hours (3:20 TGV and 0:40 'car), with a carbon footprint of 500%", he wondered about "the utility to move in the city of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Tignes in Savoie when you are mayor of Paris and that you welcome the Tour de France two days later ".
Denouncing a "stink ball" launched by the majority, the first deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, regretted on LCI the "trial of Anne Hidalgo especially coming" members of LREM while the mayor "traveled with a government minister in the same plane ". "It's still a bit baroque." He stressed "that no other means of travel allowed to go this step" and that "Anne Hidalgo never said that we had to give up the plane".