Yesterday, we published the article regarding the new initiative by Christian Estrosi in his capacity as President of the Metropolis. We received this statement from Patrick Allemand (PS), President of the Changing Times Group of the Nice Municipal Council immediately afterwards.
Christian Estrosi has just unveiled the new metropolitan signage, indicating that new “cyan blue” road markers will gradually replace the yellow departmental markers over the 1,700 km of the new metropolitan road network, transferred by the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes.
As usual, the Mayor of Nice is showing surprising haste since the transfer of responsibilities has only been complete for 4 days.
The change of markers will be fully financed by the metropolitan taxpayer: 500,000 euros!
This is not a priority expense in times of economic crisis, but, as with Nicolas Sarkozy, Christian Estrosi has both words and actions.
Especially since, with his desire to create an irreversible process and to engage in a real race against time by May 6th, Christian Estrosi ends up forgetting that above Nice and its Metropolis, there are laws, the Republic, and France:
After May 6th, in case of François Hollande’s victory, Nice Côte d’Azur will not escape the third act of decentralization promised by the socialist candidate on March 3rd in Dijon during his speech on territories. No one can know what will become of the metropolises, in their current form, knowing that it is a blatant failure of territorial reform: only one, ours, has been created throughout France. Elsewhere, the prefects have slowed down the process.
Who is Mr. Estrosi to impose “cyan blue” as the reference color and model for markers on potential future metropolises? It is likely, as was the case with departmental roads for yellow, that a unique color will be mandated across France to facilitate drivers’ understanding of the road network.
And what if François Hollande’s government chose pink or green?
Because Nice Côte d’Azur is part of the Republic, this choice would be imposed on us, and Christian Estrosi would be forced to dismantle his “cyan blue” markers and discard them.
This is how Christian Estrosi manages public funds.
