Christophe Béchu takes all his delegate ministers to Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes for a 24-hour trip on ecological transition

While ecology seems a little less fashionable lately, the Minister of Ecological Transition wants to show through this trip that it is still moving… including in government.

Christophe Béchu is taking his five delegate ministers, Housing, Transport, Rurality, City, Sea and Biodiversity, for a virtual relocation of the Ministry of Ecological Transition between Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand, Thursday February 22 and Friday February 23. The six ministers will all be together, all the time. On the program: inauguration of an electric charging station in a rural area, meeting on the improvement of the Paris-Clermont train line, or housing stop in Vaulx-en-Velin… There will also be a question of agriculture: Friday at 6 a.m., head to the Lyon wholesale market to “pay homage to those who nourish us”. The ministers will also meet agricultural unions in Puy-de-Dôme. And above all, the six ministers will be on the grill this Thursday evening for 2 hours of questions and answers at the Lyon prefecture on the theme “succeed in the ecological transition together”. Farmers, unions, NGOs are invited, but all residents of the surrounding area are also welcome to question the ministers.

“Ecology doesn’t bother everyone”

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region was not chosen at random. It is chaired by LR Laurent Wauquiez, who is not very supportive of ecology. Laurent Wauquiez has not planned to participate in the ministers’ visit, according to his entourage. While the ministry assumes the “provocative” side: Christophe Béchu intends to show Laurent Wauquiez that “ecology doesn’t bother everyone”, said a relative. But during the period, there is also a need to show that ecology is still moving… including in government.

The executive is under fire from environmentalists after, among other things, the elimination of a billion euros from the MaPrimeRénov system, and the decline on pesticides to calm the anger of farmers. “Ecology takes the bullet in the end” accuses Marine Tondelier, the boss of the Ecologists. Christophe Béchu’s team fights back: “Ecology is alive and well!” Even if not all arbitrations are won. In Bercy we demine: “MaPrimeRénov goes from 5 to 4 billion, that’s okay, it’s still seven times more than in 2020”. Matignon also defends himself against “to the lessons of the ecologists, who did not do as much under the five-year term of François Hollande to reduce pesticides”. But the government still needs to show its green fiber these days.