Back-to-school interview for the mayor of Caen and president of the Caen-la-Mer urban community this Friday morning on France Bleu Normandie. Joel Bruneau answered our questions on the news of the week, in particular the knife attack at Lycée Malherbe, the start of the international fair in Caen, the funeral of the Queen of England… He also returned to the controversial project of a gourmet hall on the Place de la République. A new copy will be presented and we are far from the initial project.
France Bleu: Were you surprised by the knife attack on Tuesday at Lycée Malherbe?
Joël Bruneau: “Yes, because the national authorities always say that Caen is a calm city. It is not that calm. Unfortunately, it happens here and there that we have problems, including delinquency. However , fortunately, it’s something totally unprecedented which I hope will obviously never happen again.”
After the attack on a teacher, the headmaster of Malherbe high school banged his fist on the table, particularly on the issue of social networks. Do you support his approach?
“I think that many of us think that social networks are like all tools. It can be useful, but it can also have a lot of deviations. Unfortunately, we see them every day. The professor can find explanations, but in no case any justification. It is obviously an absolutely inadmissible act.
Middle school students from Mondeville and Colombelles will be able to go to the Henri Brunet college in Caen. A decision of the departmental council that lacks transparency?
_”_I don’t know how things were actually prepared. What I am personally convinced of is that our school system, which everyone now admits is very socially reproductive, suffers from this state of affairs, in particular because of the school map. The school map, whether we like it or not, still looks a lot like the map of the price of real estate. This means that you have children from backgrounds advantaged who go to college together and those who are from more disadvantaged backgrounds who go together to another college. The level of the colleges not being the same, obviously. Consequently, everything that can be done to bring about this social mixing that can actually allow you to work more at what you want and which you are less and less able to do. That is to say equal opportunities. This seems to me to be going in the right direction.”
Does Caen-la-Mer have the means to provide school bus service for them?
“I think we will find technical solutions, as we have found for the children of Colombelles who were to go to Mondeville.”
The Caen fair opens today. It is no longer that of yesteryear. Why ? Because the economic world is changing? Because there is a purchasing power crisis?
“Yes, and then there are also the distribution methods that are changing. A fair is first and foremost an economic showcase. And today, there are plenty of showcases. You were talking about social networks well, a lot of things have changed. You can always say that it was better before. In any case, today is different and it will probably be tomorrow too. But I want to salute, all the same, the organizers because this fair, it still has a good consistency. It will, I am sure, welcome many visitors. It remains an important meeting in our city.”
The consultation for the new tram line begins at the end of the month. Do you dread this moment of confrontation with the population, with the discontented?
_”_I am all the less afraid of consultation since we had already initiated a vast consultation procedure a few months ago. But this time, it is about “official” consultation, that which is supervised by the National Commission of the public debate. And I simply invite each citizen to come and say what he thinks about it, whether they put forward arguments against or arguments for. In any case, consultation is actually useful for understanding the issues of a project like this, which is a major project. Also to understand how it will contribute to the evolution of our city. At a time when, in fact, all cities are thinking about ways to better organize the sharing of public space between the different uses and to get out of the automobile altogether. I believe that we need to have a serious debate on this question as on others.”
Where is the “new” project of gourmet halls, Place de la République? It was a commitment of your campaign in 2014
“The team that was selected to establish this gourmet hall project has developed its project. What is important to me is that we will, I hope, finally be able to build a gourmet hall on this space. “
But will there be no more cinemas, shopping centres, underground car parks?
“There are major changes. Indeed, no more underground parking, because there is a technical, legal development. So it’s to simplify things. To calm the debate, too, we’re moving into a rental system , in quotation marks, land rather than an assignment via a long lease. But the main thing is that tomorrow, in Caen, we can have this gourmet stopover. It is an equipment that has become almost common in many cities. And it would still be a shame if a city like ours, in the heart of a region of such quality, could not enjoy such equipment.”
On Monday, the funeral of Elizabeth II will take place at Westminster Abbey initiated by William the Conqueror and built in Caen stone. You have published archival photos of the queen at the town hall of Caen. Did it affect you?
“There are very special links between Caen and Great Britain, they have not always been completely friendly. But we obviously have special links which still exist, which are of course linked to a very old history. going back of course to William the Conqueror but also, more recently, of the links that were forged in the harsh period of the Liberation and the fighting of 1944.”