The Departmental Council voted during its assembly this Friday, at the initiative of its president Eric Ciotti, a motion requesting the removal of the Saint-Isidore toll and, as a result, the free bypass of Nice for all users.
For the record, this initiative has its origins in the serious accident, a little over a week ago, which caused the death of one person and seriously injured others. An episode that followed others in the recent past.
Eric Ciotti also urged citizens to express their views through a petition and took the initiative to question the supervising Minister on this subject. Of course, the request is heading in the right direction and can be supported by many motivations.
As a politician, Eric Ciotti has a clear path to profit from it, but, as there always is a but, it is the speculative nature of this action that is pointed out by Xavier Garcia, federal secretary of the Socialist Party of Alpes-Maritimes:
“Eric Ciotti is right to call for the removal of the Saint-Isidore toll, which was the scene of a fatal accident last week. I have indeed signed the petition he launched on this subject because the general interest must transcend partisan divisions.
But this initiative and the vote on a motion by the Departmental Council come far too late. Highway companies are private companies and have rock-solid concession contracts on which politics and the general interest have almost no grip.
It was in 2005, when his political friends launched this privatization, that Mr. Ciotti and other local right-wing leaders should have mobilized. However, at that time, all UMP deputies voted in favor of privatization.”
Xavier Garcia does not refrain from making a jab in conclusion: “Voluntarism is important in politics. Consistency is even more so.”
