France at odds over tree and Tour
In the French local elections the Green Party won several large cities, including Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg. Conservative commentators are irked by the new accents they are setting in politics: the mayor of Bordeaux recently announced that the traditional Christmas tree in the city centre would be abolished for environmental reasons, and his counterpart in Lyon has criticised the Tour de France as a macho event.
Arrogance of the eco-elite
Contrepoints is outraged by the mayor of Lyon's statements:
“Grégory Doucet called the Tour de France 'macho' on the grounds that there's no women's version of the race. But he went too far and forgot the facts: the first women's Tour took place in 1951, and the event will be relaunched in 2022. In the meantime there have been 27 editions of the women's Tour without an economically viable model ever being found. ... Grégory Doucet certainly believes in the virtue of his position and that in defending it he's engaging in politics. But in trying too hard to ideologise our world he's in fact demonstrating the ecologists' contempt for the popular classes and an absolute disregard for economic realities.”
Unfortunately they mean exactly what they say
For Le Figaro the affair exposes the left-wing agenda of a minority that is out of touch with reality:
“The newly elected environmentalists are making more mistakes every day. And don't put their blunders down to the fact that they're not yet familiar with political communication and so are prone to make beginner's mistakes. It's tragic, but they mean what they say. And like them, a whole movement - just a small minority in public opinion but dreadfully powerful in universities and the media - is convinced that masculinity is 'toxic' and that heterosexuality is suspect, that technological progress is not only useless but also harmful, and that we must deconstruct our shameful history and uproot our customs and traditions.”