Paris (AFP)

Bruno Le Maire described Sunday as "totally stupid" the words of the environmentalist mayor of Poitiers for whom "the air must no longer be part of children's dreams", while Yannick Jadot (EELV) considered that "the policy no not to be interested in the dreams of the French ".

"I think dreams are privacy," Jadot told BFMTV, recalling that he was able to "experience part of the beauty of the world through the plane".

Basically, however, the potential presidential candidate "assumes" the green mayor's decision to reduce subsidies to local flying clubs.

"On the plane, everyone understood that we were going to change" with less business trips in particular, supported the MEP.

We must both "save Air France", which must receive new financial aid, and "develop other modes of transport", according to him.

The Poitiers municipal council on March 29 voted to reduce subsidies to two aero clubs in Poitiers.

During the debate, Mayor Léonore Moncond'huy said "to assume" the fact that "public money should no longer finance sports based on the consumption of exhaustible resources".

"The air is sad, but should no longer be part of children's dreams today," she added, drawing the wrath of Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari (LREM) and several other politicians.

Mr. Jadot deplored the extent of the controversy: "France is suffering, we will reach 100,000 deaths from Covid, we have social damage and what the ministers tell us is the controversy around environmentalists".

The words of the mayor of Poitiers, "it is a madness which is not only revolting but dangerous" and "totally stupid", had declared earlier the Minister of the Economy in the program Le Grand Jury of RTL, Le Figaro and LCI.

"I have no desire for the mayor of Poitiers, or any political leader whatsoever, and certainly not radical environmentalists, to change the dreams of my children," added Bruno Le Maire.

"The dreams of French children belong only to French children".

"The air must be part of our life, the carbon-free air. I belong to a government which believes that ecology must be based on innovation, new technologies. I am fighting for Airbus to be the leading aircraft manufacturer in the world to make a hydrogen plane, that's the real dream, "said the minister.

"It's not degrowth, it's not turning in on oneself, it's not abandoning technologies, it's not renouncing progress. It's reconciling economic success with decarbonization of our economy and respect for the environment, "he said.

© 2021 AFP