Are the ecologists of the National Assembly serious?
André Heitz*
(Source)
The 22 MPs in the group Ecologists-NUPES, led by MM. Charles Fournier and Nicolas Thierry, filed a Law proposition February 21, 2023 (this is number 886).
This is an extremely…let’s not exaggerate…very important bill, as evidenced by the beginning of the explanatory memorandum:
« Our fellow citizens are worn out. To the difficulties related to purchasing power, once morest a backdrop of record inflation since the start of the war in Ukraine, are added uncertainties regarding the future of our social protection system. They wonder regarding our ability to guarantee them a dignified standard of living and to protect them. According to the tenth wave of the study “French Fractures”, 58% of French people believe they belong to a dissatisfied country, and 87% say they live in a violent society ([1]).
These feelings of anger, injustice and anguish require measures of protection and appeasement. Protect to appease: this is the whole point of this bill. »
Note 1 is an article from Mondeby axiom a serious and reliable reference which dispenses with providing the link to the original post (which honorable Members will probably not have read).
You will be spared the rest of the explanatory memorandum, although there are also a few elements that deserve to be noted. It would spoil the rest of the unbearable suspense.
But what is this bill?
It is pompously titled: …aiming to guarantee safe and peaceful access to nature for all French people ».
But how are we to guarantee – the word is strong – this safe and quiet access?
Rest assured, this is not, for once, a gas factory, but a unique item. It is of course a question of modifying an article of a code, here of the environment. And add a paragraph that fits in one line:
« No one can hunt on Sunday. »
In itself, and whatever the opinion that one may have of its objective and its effects, this bill does not raise any particular problem in the context of our legislative dysentery. What is shocking, on the other hand, is the poor emphasis of the explanatory memorandum. It will be examined by the Committee on Sustainable Development and Regional Planning on March 29, 2023. To be continued, therefore.
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* André Heitz is an agricultural engineer and retired international civil servant of the United Nations system. He has served the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In his last position, he was the Director of the WIPO Coordination Office in Brussels.
A version of this article originally appeared on Counterpoints.
