SUV in Paris: Anne Hidalgo's Demagogic Crusade

This Sunday, February 4, 2024, the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo is consulting residents on tripling parking fees for SUVs.

Dividing people against each other. That is the clever idea found by the City Hall of Paris, in these complicated times, which involves fueling social unrest. Also handy for distraction and avoiding addressing real issues that spoil Parisians’ lives, such as public transport failures (which could actually reduce car use…), insecurity, dirt, delays in construction schedules (the city is under construction and nothing advances), or the exorbitant cost of housing in the capital.

No, the automobile is the main battleground for Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is doing everything possible to encourage residents to leave for the provinces and tourists to find new, more welcoming destinations. After raising the metro ticket to 4 euros, her attempts to slow down the Périphérique, close lanes or even sections of the A86, penalize motorized two-wheelers parking, and ban electric scooters, here is a new approach.

Hidalgo, model of ecological virtue?

Thus, five months before the Olympic Games, the urgent question is whether to triple parking rates for “heavy, bulky, polluting individual cars”. Hidalgo could have added “ugly, often gray or black, driven by wealthy bourgeois polluters, etc.”. And the poster invites voting by scandalously directing thoughts with a question highlighted in red contrasting with the rest: “MORE OR FEWER SUVs IN PARIS?”

This question is completely irrelevant, as the debate is about parking prices, which would go from 6 to 18 euros per hour for thermal or hybrid vehicles over 1.6 tons, or electric vehicles over 2 tons. The stigmatization, a word often waved around, is to be denounced here.

Let’s set aside the (polluting) Tahitian holidays of Madame Hidalgo paid by Parisian taxpayers, to instead ask other questions: is all this legal? Does the City Hall of Paris have the authority to decide what constitutes a polluting car? Is a plug-in hybrid SUV capable of running up to 100 km electrically with a Crit’Air 1 sticker more polluting than a 10-year-old small diesel city car that is lightweight? Isn’t it the state’s role to decide on such matters?

The debate is highly complex, and entrusting the decision to the people, who lack the necessary information to make an informed choice, is a blatantly populist and dangerous practice. Underlying this, some voters might interpret the question as “More or fewer rich people in Paris?”, with SUVs being wrongly portrayed as vehicles for wealthy individuals.

An anti-social measure?

Again, this ignores everyday issues faced by large families, the elderly, working professionals, and others. If mobility becomes restricted, online shopping will further develop, simply shifting pollution problems without solving them. Meanwhile, shops and restaurants will continue to go bankrupt. A simple walk through the streets of Paris is enough to see this.

The ironic part is that this measure would be counterproductive: it would favor ultra-rich individuals for whom price is not an issue, while attacking lower classes that already suffer from overwhelming French taxation.

The results of the consultation will be announced very soon.