Europe 1 with AFP 10:15 p.m., March 14, 2023
"For or against self-service scooters?"
?
This is the question that was put to Parisians in view of an unprecedented vote to be held on April 2.
A maneuver criticized by opponents of the PS mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, believing for some that the elected official is doing an "act of helplessness".
The opposition to the PS mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, but also its environmental allies, criticize in substance and form the unprecedented vote scheduled for April 2 on whether or not to maintain self-service scooter operators in the capital.
The question "for or against self-service scooters?"
posed to Parisians "is at the crossroads of the challenges of the 21st century" such as "travel safety and "environmental health", affirmed the socialist councilor during a debate on the subject in municipal council.
This ballot is "a first but it will not be a last", also assured Anne Hidalgo, promising "to integrate a question of local interest in future votes".
"It's not a vote, it's an attack on the dignity of the vote", lambasted his opponent LR Rachida Dati, according to whom the vote "has no legal basis: it is neither a local referendum, nor consultation".
Parisians registered on the electoral lists on March 3 will have to go to one of the 21 municipal buildings open to vote, without the possibility of electronic voting.
To the chagrin of the three operators who hoped to mobilize their young audience in this way.
Scooters are accused by their detractors of littering the asphalt despite the dedicated spaces, of brushing at full speed with pedestrians on the sidewalks, of competing with public transport or of not being so ecological because of a bad carbon footprint. Assumed.
Environmentalists point finger at Airbnb file
For Nicolas Jeanneté, another elected member of the LR and related group, Anne Hidalgo "uses scooters as a scapegoat, as the only culprit of chaos in the public space".
He also suspects Anne Hidalgo, who said she was in favor of the ban, of 'disregarding' the result, since the regulations state that the opinion will be 'taken into account', and not binding, 'in the decision mayoral final.
"You discard on the Parisians to make a difficult decision", lambasted the deputy MoDem Maud Gatel, Pierre-Yves Bournazel (Horizons) seeing in the possible ban an "act of powerlessness".
The environmentalists, who will vote against, were also critical: "Why choose this subject when the long-announced referendum on Airbnb, otherwise more structuring, has not yet been able to be organized?" Asked Sylvain Raifaud (EELV ).