Friday, December 9, 10 p.m., Festival of Lights. ” I am very angry “, release Grégory Doucet to those around him. While coming from the other end of the city on a bicycle, the mayor of Lyon was blocked by a policeman at a checkpoint near the Opera. Impossible to reach the town hall, located a few dozen meters away. The instructions are strict at the entrances to the Presqu’île, where the thousands of spectators roam. No bikes, no scooters. “He really spoke to me very badly, I do not understand how one can speak like that to a citizen”, the city councilor gets annoyed in front of several members of his cabinet. “At the end, I had to insist, to tell him that I was the mayor of Lyon to pass”, he said, before beginning a long nocturnal visit.
Prevented from reaching the town hall, in his own city. Not recognized enough, or voluntarily stopped? The scene is the perfect metaphor. Propelled mayor of Lyon in June 2020 for his very first elective mandate, Grégory Doucet, 49, exercises his function in adversity. For two years, the elected Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) has been living a complicated partnership with the State, and not only through his publicized duel with the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
“Centralization, concentration, verticality of power”, he lists, denouncing “the mechanics of inertia”. Example: the mayor has engaged in a standoff with the regional prefect Pascal Mailhos to move the tanks which contain 300,000 tonnes of hydrocarbons to the Edouard-Herriot port, in the south of the city. “It’s an inconceivable potential danger, the State told me that we had to wait until 2050 to move this partly strategic stock, I would like 2030, we have set ourselves 2040, but I don’t want to be satisfied with that. », said the mayor.
Aim for the “acceptability” of decisions
If he expected to fight with the administration, the mayor of Lyon faces another challenge: to convince the citizens to accept the changes deemed essential. “Everyone says they agree on an environmental program, everyone knows that we should not wait any longer to act. When it is necessary to take action, it does not follow, and, if there is not an elected environmentalist to make a decision, it is not taken. When you are an environmentalist mayor, you do not take the population with the snap of your fingers, ” confides Grégory Doucet to Monde.
The proliferation of cycle paths, for example, causes daily traffic jams – the challenge of soft mobility is far from won. “I can clearly see that the transformation of lifestyles and behaviors is quite soft. Letting go of your car is difficult for many people. said the mayor of Lyon. Realizing that the incantation is not enough to implement his ecological program, he changed his strategy. For him, the issue is now “acceptability” environmental proposals. Without giving the impression of imposing or punishing, as his opponents insist.
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