Paris (AFP)

Several associations requesting a postponement of 5G for health and environmental reasons on Friday denounced "the role-playing game" between Bercy who wishes to keep the deployment schedule unchanged, and the ministers of the Ecological Transition and of Health who mentioned a delay .

"We remain on the current schedule," assured Bercy to AFP, after a meeting with associations who came to present a petition against the deployment of the next generation of mobile networks and request the cancellation of the procedure. allocation of new frequencies, pending new data on their safety.

The auctions for their allocation are to be held in September, paving the way for the first commercial offers in certain cities by the end of the year.

"To have data, deployments must begin," justified the Ministry of the Economy, which cites work in progress by several organizations including the Health Security Agency (ANSES) or the Frequency Agency (ANFR ).

The only concession to associations, the government asked several state departments for a "review of the first deployments of 5G in the world", expected in early September, to draw "good practices".

On the side of the cabinet of the Minister of the Ecological Transition Elisabeth Borne, we assure on the contrary that the question of the calendar is not settled and that the "discussions in interdepartmental" continue.

Ms. Borne and Minister of Health Olivier Véran sent a letter to the Prime Minister on Sunday asking to wait for an assessment of the health and environmental effects of 5G before deploying this new network.

Contacted Friday by AFP on this subject, Matignon did not react.

The associations Priartem, Agir pour l'Environnement, France Nature Environnement and the National Council of Secular Family Associations (Cnafal) came Friday to deliver to the Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy Agnès Pannier-Runacher a petition against 5G signed by 82,000 people.

"In this government, it's a bit of a role-play between the Minister of Ecology and that of the Economy," Acting for the Environment's delegate general, Stéphen Kerckhove, told AFP.

At the end of the meeting, the associations deplored in a press release "a new form of democratic deafness consisting in listening without hearing".

"It will have taken less than a week for the government to abandon the progress of the Citizens' Climate Convention," they write.

The 150 citizens drawn by lot from the Citizens' Climate Convention had proposed on June 21 to establish a moratorium on the implementation of 5G pending the results of its assessment on health and the environment, a position followed Wednesday by senators behind a report to limit the ecological impact of digital.

The associations are also at the origin of an appeal to the Council of State, whose decision, delayed by the health crisis, is no longer expected "before the fall", according to a source familiar with the matter.

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