- After a meeting with PS and related mayors on Tuesday, Alain Anziani unveiled his roadmap for the metropolitan area on Wednesday.
- He especially wants to “start from scratch” on the issue of travel and put all projects flat and wants to make a clean sweep of the density for more vegetation in the spaces.
- It also intends to develop the right bank, which will involve additional crossings of the Garonne.
- But first of all, he will have to convince the new mayor of Bordeaux, the environmentalist Pierre Hurmic, of the benefits of the co-management system, and this may be his biggest challenge.
"I'm going to disappoint you" warns Alain Anziani when the first journalists arrive. The day after an internal meeting with the other PS or related mayors of Bordeaux Métropole, the mayor of Mérignac appeared this Wednesday in front of the media, "not to announce my candidacy for the presidency of Bordeaux Métropole, but to give my vision ".
It is no mystery, however, that the mayor of the second city of the agglomeration, with 70,000 inhabitants, wants to be elected by his peers on July 17 next at the head of Bordeaux intercommunality. But for that, he will have to rally around a vision for the next six years, while not offending anyone. "The art of a metropolis is to manage to assemble opposites, and make something positive out of them," admits Alain Anziani.
"In 2014, Juppe could have closed the door on us, he did not"
First, he will have to convince the new mayor of Bordeaux, the environmentalist Pierre Hurmic, of the need to continue the next term under the co-management system. This is the system that has prevailed in the metropolis since its creation, and which wants the mayors of the 28 municipalities to agree at the start of their mandate on a project, without harming any city, whatever its political color. A system with which Pierre Hurmic, who considers it ineffective, wants to break away.
Press conference by the mayor of Merignac Alain Anziani (PS): "it is not to announce a candidacy for the presidency of Bordeaux Métropole, but to give the vision" #Bordeaux @BxMetro #municipales #Merignac pic.twitter.com/ tpHf8izVaI
- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) July 1, 2020"How can we be an environmentalist and condemn common governance?" Wonders Alain Anziani. It is not contrary to their DNA, they have even participated in it for years. I share the concern for efficiency noted by Pierre Hurmic, but I think that we can be effective in a common governance structure. It is not because we are all together that we are worse. In 2014, if Alain Juppé had wished, he could have closed the door on us, since his group was in the majority in France. However, he came to see me, and we agreed on a mandate contract. I think we should continue this way. If he hadn't, there are Greens who would have been scandalized. I don't want to be the author of this scandal. "
Among the other PS mayors, "I have no opponent, only friends"
Alain Anziani must also impose himself in his own group. Hence the internal meeting on Tuesday with the other PS mayors. "In our group there is a discussion, but I have no opponent, only friends," he smiles. And almost all mayors believe that the [co-management] system has worked well and that we can continue with it, improving it. What they criticize is the heaviness of the metropolis. "
But where Alain Anziani is really a favorite is that, even in the opposition, the current president of the metropolis, Patrick Bobet (LR), favorable to co-management, has already announced that he would vote for him. Its group, Communauté d'Avenir, represents 38 seats out of 104 in the metropolitan area. "I thank him, commented soberly this Wednesday the interested party, but he said it without asking my opinion. I prefer to work differently, and see if first we have an agreement. "
He does not want "a cushy metropolis, which purrs"
For this, the mayor of Mérignac rolled out his roadmap for the metropolitan area on Wednesday. “Our metropolis will face three major challenges: the climatic, economic and social, and democratic challenge. The correct answer is to first put ideas on the table, then we will see who will be president of the city, and how we manage it. "
Alain Anziani's first priority if elected, will be ecological transition. On this subject, he does not want "a cushy metropolis, which purrs. We have to see, for example, how we are developing our transport, for example with the hydrogen engine, which is certainly more the future than the electric motor. "
"I will never let go of the aeronautical basin of the metropolis"
The question of mobility will obviously be another priority. “People can't take it anymore, they are exhausted by the traffic difficulties. We will have to revise our movement pattern, with a very strong intermodal vision. We will start from scratch and we will look at what corresponds to the needs of the inhabitants. And let's not stop innovating: the cable car can be one solution among others. "However, he recognizes that" the financial constraints will be very strong, and that things cannot be done. »Beware of tram line extensions to Saint-Médard and Gradignan…
"We are going to have a major crisis," continues the mayor of Mérignac, "and the air sector will be marked very strongly, our subcontractors are starting to suffer. We must consolidate our major employment areas, in particular our aeronautical and space industrial area, and consolidate everything around the airport. I will never let go of the aeronautical basin of the metropolis. But we are not going to do industry as we did before, we must move towards zero carbon, while respecting the residential areas. "
"I wish there were islands of freshness everywhere"
On urban planning, “people are tired of seeing dense, mineral cities. There is an urban revolution to start, by continuing to produce housing, in particular social housing. We are going to make an urban mini-forest right in the city center, I hope there are islands of freshness everywhere, because we will have the climate of Seville in a few years and we have to anticipate. "
Finally, the development of the right bank of the metropolis must accelerate. “Our friends on the right bank are right to point out that they are the forgotten ones of the metropolis. The question of crossing the Garonne arises because our city is one of those with the fewest crossings. And I plead for the creation of an OIM [operation of metropolitan interest] on the right bank, around the river and renewable energies. "
All these proposals, "I will send them to Pierre Hurmic, Patrick Bobet, and others, to see with them whether it is a good basis for work or not. "Anyway," he continues, "you would have to be crazy to want to be president of the metropolis if there is no agreement." How else do you get the budget passed without a minimum of consensus? Are you going to fight against Bordeaux or Mérignac? "
Municipal
Results of the municipal elections in Bordeaux: "Ultimately, I think we will go towards a car ban", announces Pierre Hurmic
Municipal
2020 municipal elections in Bordeaux: is the right "ready for anything" to save co-management in the metropolis?
- Economy
- Metropolises
- Aquitaine
- Bordeaux