This city council session on November 7 opened for the first time with a general policy debate requested by the “Retrouver Nice” group.
*”When we requested this debate, the world was different. No one could have imagined that we would have since been confronted with absolute horror,”* begins Philippe Vardon.
Requested and obtained by the elected official from the Zemmourian group “Retrouver Nice,” a general policy debate took place at the opening of the city council on November 7 before addressing the 156 items on the agenda. The group wanted to evaluate but mainly “prospect” the municipal policy at mid-term, 15 years after Christian Estrosi’s election as the head of the city. And it is a first in Nice. Christian Estrosi admitted to being unaware of the existence of this process until Philippe Vardon requested it.
This provision allows the city council to organize a debate on the general policy of the municipality once a year, “at the request of at least one-tenth of the city council members, according to Article L2121-19 of the CGCT.” For Christian Estrosi, it is an “oddity” voted by parliamentarians, although it has been in effect since 2020.
The topic of the day: the international context and the security measures to be deployed locally. The opposition group presidents Philippe Vardon from Retrouver Nice, and Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux from EELV first spoke, followed by Pierre-Paul Léonelli from the majority group “Nice Ensemble,” then the mayor and his deputy, Richard Chemla.
La France Insoumise renamed “La France islamiste” by Philippe Vardon
*”This conflict is not foreign to us,”* insists Philippe Vardon, referring to the latest report communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 39 French people have been killed in Israel, 9 are missing. *”It is a clash of civilizations with its implications, global consequences, meaning European, national, and even Niçoise,”* he states.
*”I am appalled by the silence or, at best, the timidity of Nice’s imams and Islamic associations in response to the situation. We have known them, in other times, much more talkative, much more active when it came to discussing the situation in the Middle East,”* he laments. Philippe Vardon calls on French Muslims to clearly condemn Hamas’s terrorist acts.
Like a significant portion of the French political class, he criticizes “La France Insoumise” for refusing to use the term terrorist to describe Hamas. A party he enjoys renaming “La France indigne,” “la France islamo-gauchiste,” and even “la France islamiste.” Philippe Vardon speaks of *”excesses and unbearable complacencies.”*
Pierre-Paul Léonelli condemns *”the makers of half-measures and political stunts”* and calls for stopping the *”playing on words and nitpicking to avoid action.”*
16% of 18-24-year-olds sympathize with Hamas
*”There exists, between Islamist ideology and terrorist acts, what Gilles Kepel calls a continuum, the atmosphere jihad,”* he assures before sharing, shocked, the results of an Ifop survey conducted for Crif which reveals that 16% of 18-24-year-olds sympathize with Hamas.
*”It is not their fault; it is the fault of the education system; it is the fault of some who expose them to image manipulations and Hamas,”* comments the mayor.
*”We are all here, the elected representatives of a city that has suffered twice, which gives us the responsibility to support the eradication of Hamas, also the responsibility to support the eradication of the Islamist threat in Nice, in France, and Europe, as it concerns the future of our continent and our children’s future,”* concludes the president of Retrouver Nice.
Pierre-Paul Léonelli, representing the majority, adds: *”Just a few meters from the Promenade des Anglais, the speeches we make in this chamber, a place of freedom and democratic expression, have meaning, that of resistance, that of a world we want in peace.”*
A “side issue” for Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux
While Philippe Vardon indeed spoke about terrorism and insecurity for ten minutes, Pierre-Paul Léonelli labeled the ecologist elected official’s remarks as “side issue,” criticizing her for addressing local politics. Christian Estrosi accused the city councilor of dodging and *”seizing this opportunity to talk about everything and nothing”* instead of deciding whether or not the Niçois ecologist group belongs to NUPES.
*”As elected and citizens of a democracy of Enlightenment, we have the moral duty to vigorously condemn all,”* she insists, “the atrocities committed against civilians. We do not forget Gaza, which is becoming a cemetery for children, as the UN secretary, Antonio Guterres, put it,”* she expressed during her speaking time.
Christian Estrosi retorts: *”A ceasefire is a life insurance policy for Hamas. If the fighting stops, Hamas restructures. A child dying in war is not the same as dying beheaded. Dying with weapons in hand is not the same as dying exterminated.”* For the ecologist elected official, *”pain knows no frontier, no religion.”*
Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux took this debate as an opportunity to remember the victims of recent storms and thus speak about the environment. She mentions repetitive violent phenomena *”that should no longer allow anyone to doubt the impact of climate change on our lives, right here.”*
Nice in 2030: Disaster Scenario vs. Remarkable Advances
The ecologist elected official then launched into a prospective narrative. What would Nice look like in 2030? Contrary to the optimistic projections entrusted by the mayor of Nice in the pages of Le Point, she outlines a disaster scenario, particularly on the financial and environmental sides. *”And it will not be the umpteenth Nice Climate Summit sponsored by Total Energies that will change things,”* she attacks.
She calls the mayor a *”master in the art of communication and illusion”* and accuses him of going *”all out, no matter the cost,”* to satisfy “a postcard policy.” The millions of euros of investment for the future Police Headquarters, the Promenade du Paillon 2.0, the congress hall at the port for the UN Ocean summit in 2025, the congress palace at the Arenas disturb the EELV side.
Nice in 2030 then rhymes with *”, a mislabeled urban forest,”* arranged with a *”synthetic lawn laid on a concrete slab”* and *”a few trees planted in 2025 that won’t survive,”* but also with *”peak over-tourism,”* and *”fine particle pollution that has never been so oppressive”* due to the completed extension of terminal 2 of the airport and its *”990,000 tons of CO2″* or *”overcrowded public transport.”*
*”There will no longer be synthetic lawns in 2030 since plastic will have been banned in Nice since 2026. Trees will continue to grow because we’ll have chosen beautiful species and not just on the Green Flow. Certainly, the airport will continue to pollute and bring us CO2, but much less than anticipated, it will drop below 12%. Domestic flights will be abolished, only international flights will remain, and prices will have increased by 20% to help pursue our environmental policy,”* responds Richard Chemla, Environment Deputy.
