Emmanuel Macron won’t forget the Yellow Vest movement in a hurry. The ragtag army that recruited regardless of sex, age, region and political persuasions, seriously rattled the president of France in the winter of 2018-19. Never in his wildest dreams could Macron have imagined, when he signed off his fuel tax rise, that within weeks he would be barricaded inside the Élysée as outside heavily-armed police faced down furious protestors.
Still, it taught Macron one thing: that those in the provinces see the world differently to the progressive political and media class in Paris. That’s why Macron has prioritised combating Islamism and uncontrolled immigration over the environment in the lead up to next year’s election.
Earlier this week, the government was taken to task by an independent body (which was set up by Macron) for its failure to meet climate targets. A couple of years ago such an accusation would have led to much gnashing of teeth within the Élysée but that was before Macron had his epiphany.
That’s not to say the president is now environmentally unfriendly. In December he boasted that ‘no government will have ever done as much for ecology’. Earlier this month, his ecological transition minister Barbara Pompili presented the government’s ‘climate and resilience’ bill to parliament. It comprises 65 articles to be discussed later his year, including the prohibition of renting of houses or apartments that are not energy efficient. Urban development will also be restricted.
The Greens have misinterpreted their modest success at last year’s municipal elections
In short, Macron has understood that most of his compatriots do care about the environment, and they are prepared to do their bit; but what they won’t tolerate are bumptious and hectoring Eco warriors pushing through laws that punish the poorest in society and deprive them of many of life’s little pleasures. The likes of Benjamin Griveaux, the government spokesman in 2018, who, before the Yellow Vest army mobilised, sneered that ‘people who smoke and drive diesel cars’ are incompatible ‘with the France of the 21st Century’. It turned out Griveaux was incompatible: he left his post a few months later after his office had been attacked by demonstrators.
His fall from grace should have served to ‘encourager les autres’. It hasn’t. In last summer’s municipal elections the Green Party took control of several cities including Bordeaux, Lyon and Strasbourg. Not because they were swept to power by millions of voters, but because 59 per cent of the electorate could not be bothered to vote.
In Rennes, for example, there was a record absenteeism of 68 per cent as the Socialists teamed up to form a coalition with the Greens. Shortly afterwards the mayor’s office announced that the 2021 Tour de France would not be welcome in the city because the event was sexist and harmful to the environment what with all the support cars and discarded rubbish.
The region’s chamber of commerce called the decision a ‘huge disappointment’, one which would deprive many local businesses of benefiting from the economic boost that comes with hosting the Tour
Then the newly-elected Green mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, declared that the city would not display a Christmas tree – what he termed a ‘Tree of Death’ – because it was the enemy of environmentalism. Twelve thousand residents signed a petition asking Hurmic to reconsider his decision but he dismissed his critics as ‘fascists’.
This week the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, announced his intention to remove meat from school lunches so as ‘to more quickly serve students and streamline meals’. He tried to pass it off as a Covid measure, designed to reduce the amount of time spent in the lunch queue where the virus might spread. Apparently it’s quicker to dish up nut burgers and fishcakes. No one was fooled, least of all the government, which gleefully seized the opportunity to make political capital out of the progressive dogma.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, called on the mayor to stop ‘putting ideology onto the plates of our children’. while the Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, accused the Greens of ‘moralist policies’ that insulted French farmers and butchers. Dozens of tractors roared into Lyon to protest the decision, causing disruption in the city centre, and the farmers have warned they will be back in greater force if meat isn’t returned to the menu. Meanwhile a group of outraged parents have launched legal action against the mayor’s office.
The fact that the local Communist party threw their support behind the mayor’s decision was yet more good news for the government: the Greens, the Socialists, the Communists – all cut from the same killjoy cloth.
The Greens have misinterpreted their modest success at last year’s municipal elections. They think it is the first step on the road to ultimate victory, perhaps not in the 2022 presidential election but surely in 2027. Like Momentum in Britain, they have been beguiled by social media into believing the majority share their views. The reality is that they are supported by a small cabal of aggressive and vocal activists.
As long as the Greens continue to push their progressive puritanism they will remain a fringe party nationally. ‘Let them eat carrots’ is a slogan that history is sure to judge harshly.
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