A file under high surveillance. By 2025, 43 agglomerations will integrate these EPZs, perimeters excluding the most polluting vehicles. And the government, and especially Emmanuel Macron himself, according to information from franceinfo, is concerned about it. So much so that he talks about it very regularly with the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, in charge of this flammable file. The objective is not minor: to prevent the 40,000 annual deaths linked to our exhaust pipes.
>> Pollution: six questions about Low Emission Zones, which make motorists and elected officials complain
If the generalization of the ZFE must be done by the end of 2024 in all the agglomerations of more than 150,000 inhabitants, this concern at the top of the State focuses in particular on these mobilizations against them, where they are already installed, in eleven towns in France. Another element of concern: the Crit’Air 5 vignettes, which concern the oldest diesel cars, will be banned in 2023. Almost tomorrow, therefore. However, this goes badly among the French who have them and who are often the most precarious. The powerful association 40 million motorists has also launched a petition to denounce these EPZs.
“This topic is dynamite“, worried recently a pillar of the majority, who is not the only one to worry, with, in the minds, the specter of a return of “yellow vests”. Still, according to our information, a shift in the calendar of these ZFEs is not at all topical. The watchword at the Ministry of Ecology is above all to support and educate. Thus, a national radio and television campaign will be launched next year.
Moreover, more generally, it is all the transport subjects that impact the daily life of the French that are scrutinized from the Elysée, such as, for example, the technical control of two-wheelers imposed by the Council of State. You should have seen Tuesday, October 1 Clément Beaune, the Minister of Transport, deploy treasures of precaution not to rob bikers by explaining, for example, that there would be no immediate application of this technical control. It must be said that about 2.4 million French people have a motorcycle license, not counting the million scooter drivers in France.
And then, finally, there is another date in the diary of motorists: 2035 and the end of the sale of thermal vehicles. However, as in insurance contracts, you have to look at the asterisks, the lowercase paragraphs. And, we can note, that in fact, the European Union has provided for a review clause in 2026. Governments have left themselves a way out in the event of a problem of acceptability by citizens. And it is a minister who entrusts him: “We will not hesitate to activate it if necessary“. In short, the climate is a priority, but not at the cost of a social crisis…