Perfect example of a green political propaganda, Nantes M?tropole was awarded the Trophy
for green capital of Europe, while the Socialist mayor intends concreted 2000 hectares of
agricultural land to build an airport in Notre-Dame-des -Landes. ---- The European
Commission accepted the application of Nantes to be European Green Capital in 2013. The
criteria are manifold: sustainable land use, nature and biodiversity, local air quality,
noise pollution, waste management ... With the construction of the airport, the
expropriation of peasants and therefore designed an urban development at the expense of
the environment, ecosystems and populations, this trophy received by the city is the green
or greenwashing propaganda. It represents an important policy issue for the mayor of
Nantes and its airport project on the one hand and the other hand for the PS and its
strategy of participatory democracy, to infiltrate and stifle protests.
Stifle protests
Jean-Marc Ayrault experiments and the limitations and benefits of this strategy at the
local level to better apply nationally. To counter any resistance, the council has decided
to release grants. There will be a call for proposals in the direction of citizen
associations for the island of Nantes, headed by the Samoa - the development agency of the
island of Nantes - including former President is nothing qu'Ayrault. Another trophy for
the " Nantes, European green capital "for which the municipality has a budget of 150,000
euros and a price of 5000 euros for organizations whose projects are selected. The media
will be present and the aim is to give the image of a metropolis green / green and make it
a showcase of participatory democracy dear to PS. This is to forget that the black dot
represents the airport Notre-Dame-des-Landes and Nantes presented as an innovative city in
terms of democracy, since has priori Hamburg and Vitoria Gasteiz (Basque Country), the
citizens were not associated with the dynamic " Green Capital "and the famous European
label was perceived more as a scam.
Collusion associations
Differences exist between the various environmental organizations Nantes. On the one hand,
those who want to participate in this call for project boasting to find a way to denounce
the airport are often dependent on subsidies granted by Nantes M?tropole (up to one
million per year and employees) . On the other hand, there are those who want to boycott
"call citizen" by refusing to endorse the greenwashing . For those who question the
construction of the airport, the challenge is to take this initiative to expose the
greenwashing and highlight the hypocrisy of the mayor who presents himself as a model of
sustainable development but concreted 2000 hectares of agricultural land 10 kilometers
from Nantes. The call for project highlights the collusion between the Socialist mayor and
a good part of the voluntary green Nantes which partly explains the weakness of the
anti-airport city. The opposition center at the airport relies heavily on the agricultural
sector and local residents directly affected (suburban communes, squatters ZAD). One of
the challenges is to mobilize the population more strongly Nantes still somewhat concerned
about this fight. Yet there is the historical example of the mobilization in 1997 against
the proposed nuclear power plant book, near Nantes, which had been abandoned, reminding us
that strength can continue to grow.
Maud and Stephanie (AL Nantes)
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