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The National Assembly of France voted to abolish zones with a low emission, an important measure that was introduced during the first term of President Emmanuel Macron to reduce city pollution.
So -called ZFEs (Low emissions) have been criticized because they have touched those who cannot afford the most difficult.
A handful of MPs of the Macron party joined opposition parties from the right and the very right in voting of 98-51 to scrap the zones, which have been gradually extensive in French cities since 2019.
The motion was put forward by Pierre Meurin of the extreme right-wing national rally and supported by some car organizations.
But it was a personal victory for writer Alexandre Jardin who set up a movement with the name The #Gueux (Beggars)” claim that “ecology has become in a sport for the rich”.
“Everyone played their role in the mood. The members of parliament voted before the end of this nightmare, or they were abandoning themselves,” he told the newspaper Le Figaro.
“They were afraid to go back to their constituencies if they had voted against the abolition of the ZFEs.”
The zones with low emissions started with 15 of the most polluted cities in France in 2019 and at the beginning of this year were extended to every urban area with a population of more than 150,000, with a ban on cars registered before 1997.
Those produced after 1997 need a round “crit’Air” sticker to drive in low emission zones, and there are six categories that match different types of vehicles.
The largest limitations have been applied in the most polluted cities, Paris and Lyon, as well as Montpellier and Grenoble.
They have become something of a lightning rod for the opponents of Macron.
Marine Le Pen condemned the ZFEs as “without law zones” during her presidential campaign for National Rally in 2022, and warned her communist counterpart to a “social bomb”.
The head of the right -wing Republicans in the meeting, Laurent Wauquiez, spoke about “free the French from stifling, punitive ecology”, and far left, said Clémence Guetté that green policy should not be imposed “at the back of the working class”.
The government tried to go off the rebellion of Wednesday evening by watering the limitations, but also storing the zones in Paris and Lyon. This amendment was defeated by a large margin.
Agnès-Bieter-Runacher, the Minister of Green Transition, said MPs that “air pollution behind almost 40,000 early deaths per year … and the low emission zones have helped to lower (that number)”.
The Greens and Socialists also voted to maintain the zones.
Green Senator Anne Souyris said BFMTV that “Killing (the ZFEs) also means that killing hundreds of thousands of people” and socialist parliament member Gérard Leseul said that the vote sent a negative signal because it was not about reducing the reduction that had to be drawn to air pollution.
The abolition is expected to go through the higher house, the French Senate, but it must still be approved in a broader bill in the Lower House in June and will have to be approved by the French Constitutional Council, which is not guaranteed.
