A new episode in a series that is not missing. This Tuesday, June 17, the deputies adopted the bill for the simplification of the economic life that in particular ends the areas with low emissions (ZFE) against air pollution.
The Republicans and the National Rally voted hand in hand in favor of this text studied for weeks by the deputies in a completely disjointed way.
Renaissance deputies in dispersed order
Macronie has been deeply divided despite the voting instructions given by the president of the deputies of the Renaissance Gabriel Attal and Emmanuel Macron, who explained “not being happy” of unraveling the ZFE in early June in the Provence columns.
Eight deputies of the presidential camp, almost all of the LR as Éric Woerth, Constance Le Grip and Sébastien Huyghe voted for their disappearance. Other figures of the movement, such as the former ministers, Guillaume Kasbarian and Olivia Grégoire abstained.
Part of the Government camp, such as the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, called on the deputies of the common base to reject this text that questioned this public health device.
40,000 people victims of air pollution
He had been adopted under Emmanuel Macron in 2019 in the Mobility Orientation Law. The device, extended in 2021, aims to improve air quality even though air pollution kills close 40,000 people every year in France.
Since January 1, 2025, there is no car of an individual who mount Diesel registered before 2011 or gasoline before 2006, corresponding to Crit’Air 3 decal – It can no longer circulate in Paris, Lyon, Grenoble and Montpellier. In fact, these models are considered the greatest emission of fine particles, particularly dangerous for health.
The other agglomerations in question, such as Strasbourg, Aix-in Provence-Marseille, Dijon or Rennes apply, they Restrictions least. Only individual cars registered before December 31, 1996, the public services registered before September 30, 1997 and the heavy goods vehicles registered before September 30, 200 refer to these metropolis.
Bayrou against ZFE
But part of the political class considers ZFE as a social bomb when penalizing the French who cannot afford the luxury of changing vehicles. Prime Minister François Bayrou had mentioned, for example, “his great emotion” with him Figaro On the subject in February.
“It is the poorest, those who do not have the media, who live far away who are victims,” from the ZFE, had lamented the prime minister. What to push the right and the RN to Remove ZFE During the debates in the Committee, with the contribution of the voices of some deputies of the Renaissance and the LIOS chosen last March and then in the hemicycle at the end of May.
However, Agnès Pannier-Runacher had tried to offer an alternative solution. The Ecological Transition Minister proposed that the ZFE finally refer to the agglomerations of Lyon and Parisian. He also called to configure an entire battery of communities that he would still like to use this device.
Give way to an attempt to agree
The: With 275 deputies for and 252 against, Agnès Pannier-Runacher was defeated. The observation is even more bitter since the number of abstemious and deputies of the Renaissance that voted for the abolition of ZFE only represented 22 of the 23 missing voices to achieve them to save them.
“This is a text that weakens what we have built for eight years,” Macronista deputy Marie Lebec lamented. The maneuver has all the worst effect since Emmanuel Macron defended his ecological evaluation extensively at the UN Summit for Oceans in Nice in early June.
But the story is far from finishing. Now the Joint Commission (CMP) in autumn, this body that brings together 7 deputies and 7 senators who will try to agree on a common version. On paper, the CMP must be dominated by the right, which greatly supports the disappearance of the ZFE, in the Senate as in the assembly.
Towards the censorship of the Constitutional Council?
If the CMP manages to agree, the Parliament will have to decide again on the bill, probably at the beginning of 2026. Could it be rejected in the assembly at that time? One thing is safe: the president of the macronista deputies Gabriel Attal should press his troops to follow his voting instructions.
If Macronie is full that day, the text has the opportunity to be rejected. But it is very likely that the LR and RN are also very mobilized, which is more likely that the adoption of the bill.
Last step: the passage before the Constitutional Council that could largely censor the text. And for a good reason: the ZFE have nothing to have with the initial intention of this bill that pointed out as their title suggests simplifying economic life.
Among the measures, we find in particular the creation of a payment leap to 15 lines against 50, the reduction of the deadlines to receive a claim for its insurance or the simplification of the Bistro facilities in small municipalities.
Therefore, wise men could judge that the ZFE are “a legislative rider”, the technical term to designate the presence of a subject in a bill that has nothing to have with the initial intention of the legislator.
In this case, the Constitutional Council would censor the end of the ZFE. The system would remain in its current form.
Source: BFM TV
