the PCF deputies regretfully withdraw their text on the postponement of the reform

2023-05-04 16:10:58

A line 91 bus at Montparnasse station during a strike day in February 2022. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

The Communist deputies reluctantly withdrew from the agenda of the National Assembly, Thursday, May 4, one of their texts on the postponement of the opening to competition of the Parisian buses of the RATP – the lines of the departments of small and large crown are already open – but remain very worried about the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (OG). “In 2024, the allocation of lots to private companies, the allocation of personnel and social negotiations will collide”underlined the elected official of the French Communist Party (PCF) of Seine-Saint-Denis Stéphane Peu in front of the press.

According to him, the president of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), Valérie Pécresse, “acting in a completely irresponsible manner” stubbornly in the “madness” of an opening to rapid competition and by wanting to be “The Thatcher of Ile-de-France”. The communist parliamentarian carried a bill to postpone by four years, to the end of 2028, the deadline for the end of the historic monopoly of the RATP. But, at the initiative of the presidential camp, this period was reduced in committee to the Assembly to two years, at the end of 2026, allowing M^me Pécresse “gradual implementation” but quick to open up to competition, as it wishes.

Read our decryption: Article reserved for our subscribers The postponement of the opening of Parisian buses to competition supported by Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport

Compromise

Remaining opposed to the principle of competition, the group of PCF deputies, which had included the text on the menu for a day reserved for the Palais-Bourbon on Thursday, withdrew it at the last minute, refusing that it “serves as a vehicle for this false report”. “Compromises with the majority are only one way”, with the right, denounced Mr. Peu on Thursday. IDFM, the authority responsible for organizing transport in the Ile-de-France region, plans to transport 7 million passengers during the two weeks of the Olympic Games – from July 26 to August 11, 2024 – and 3 million during the Paralympics, from August 28 to September 8, 2024 .

Mr. Peu leads with the deputy Stéphane Mazars (Renaissance) a parliamentary information mission on the Olympics. As early as February, they jointly discussed a “alert point” on the transport situation in the region chaired by Mr^me Pécresse. The Communists withdrew another bill from the agenda on Thursday, asking for a moratorium to sanctuary lines of the SNCF network. But the goal is there to allow in the time allotted Thursday to prioritize other texts of the group.

Read the decryption: Article reserved for our subscribers In Paris, the RATP bus network on the verge of rupture

The World with AFP