In Nice, the battle for or against the extension of a terminal at the third airport in France on Wednesday opposed the administrative court of associations denouncing a “over-tourism” harmful to supporters of the project accusing them of “ecological paranoia”.
By Friday, the judge in summary proceedings must decide if he suspends this site, supported by the government and the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, but a symbol for associations and a collective citizen of an economy of “over-tourism”, put in the cause in other cities of the globe.
“Our house is on fire, enlarging the airport means throwing fuel in it”, argued Thierry Bitouze for these environmental defense associations (Capre 06, France Nature Environnement Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur, FNE Alpes- Maritimes) and the Citizen Collective 06.
He cited the example of Bristol in Britain “which has just decided not to expand its airport”.
Based on projections from the Nice airport manager, he calculated that the eight million additional passengers expected by 2030 were equivalent to the number of travelers in the abandoned Notre-Dame-des-Landes project near Nantes and would generate 22,000 additional flights.
“How many more dead and sick because of these eight million passengers and these 22,000 additional flights?”, He asked, at a time when the carbon emissions of air transport are debating.
Mr. Bitouze denounces “the need for an environmental impact study”.
“Ecological paranoia,” retorted Mr. David Jacquemin, a lawyer for the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes who issued the building permit in January.
It is “a local work with limited impact”, he argued, sweeping away “the fantasies, chimeras and intangible arguments” of opponents of the extension.
Faced with the health and environmental emergency invoked by the associations, lawyers for the State and the airport concessionaire pleaded the urgency to start work for “a very small building” which they estimated at 75 million euros and denied any plans for a third terminal.
“We cannot afford to welcome people like cattle or in insufficient security conditions”, argued for his part Jean-Pierre Boivin, defending the airport, privatized in 2016 and “demonized” wrongly.
The Nice airport platform is controlled by a consortium associating the Italian company Atlantia (ex-Autostrade, subsidiary of the Benetton group and manager of Rome airport), EDF Invest and Monaco.
– Political struggle –
With the approach of the municipal elections, the opponents of the outgoing LR mayor Christian Estrosi took hold of the file, questioning the tourism economy of this city on the Cote d’Azur and its repercussions, including on housing with the rise of furnished accommodation tourism at the expense of permanent residents.
“To project into an enlargement of the airport at the expense of the climate is nonsense,” denounced the environmental leader Yannick Jadot on the move to Nice to support the Nice Ecological list (EELV, Cop21, AEI, Generation Ecologie) whose head of file Jean-Marc Governatori is committed to stopping the project if he is elected.
For the socialist list Nice au Coeur, “four million additional passengers at the airport seems unreasonable, for reasons of pollution and land service”, says Patrick Allemand, proposing to give priority to the revival of rail. “Paris-Nice at night is the economy of three air shuttles and perfectly acceptable transport … but with a change of mentality,” he said.
To the left of the socialists, the citizen assembly list with the Communist Party and La France Insoumise, says “three times no” to the extension and pleads for a referendum.
The position is more nuanced on the side of the challenger Rassemblement national of Christian Estrosi, the former identity Philippe Vardon: “If the project consists only in extending the terminal, there is nothing scandalous”, explains his running mate Odile Texier. “But increasing air traffic and putting all the ecological weight on Nice while one in three passengers stays in the city, this does not seem to us desirable or fair.”
