I am sorry I missed at least 2 writings. I was on the move, and it was difficult to write, proof-read and publish thoughts. But before you read this writing, I would like to assure you that:
- I am not an anti-socialist/anti-left person. In fact, if anything, I have been voting very much on the left in France.
- I am not a gas guzzler car crazy. I do drive a collectible car for pleasure, and drive to the countryside, but for the decades I have been living in Paris, I have been a fan of public transport and community supporting means of transportation.
You will understand why I made these 2 statements, as you read the text.
Now as the year 2021 starts to dwindle into 2022, France starts seriously talking Presidential election for the Spring of 2022. Our guest of honor in this text is Mme Anne Hidalgo, current mayor of Paris from the Socialist Party, who has announced her candidacy for the Presidential elections.
In my opinion, Mme Hidalgo belongs to this class of Lefty/socialist in France that I call the “Self-righteous” socialists. The self-righteous socialist, is a lefty/socialist who believes that because he/she is left and has the interest of the public in mind, his/her views are right and have to be implemented, and if the views do not conform to a law, the law has to change. The case in hand with Mme Hidalgo (although far from being the only one):
- There is a speedway in the heart of Paris, which lets the cars go fast through the city for those who have to do West-East journey. Mme Hidalgo decided to close it permanently to help the traffic flow and neighborhood noise and pollution. She accepted a study during six months and then review of the decision based on the outcome of the study.
- Meanwhile, the official reason she gave for closing the speedway was challenged in court on the constitutionality basis.
- The study came out that the closing of the speedway did not improve anything because it just deviated the mess to somewhere else. And in the constitutional challenge the court decided the reason given for closing it is unconstitutional.
- Mme Hidalgo, however, did not back down: She ordained that since the study did not say that the change did any harm (did not do any good, but did not do any harm either), then she can keep it closed. And as for the unconstitutionality? Well, she changed the reason to something that could not be challenged under the constitution.
To me this is typically what a self-righteous socialist does.
But there is something even more troublesome about Mme Hidalgo. It has been said that her tactic to drive the cars out of the city completely is to make their lives difficult. So she has brought in laws and traffic deviations to improve the city’s livability to the detriment of cars. In other words, make them suffer so much that the people give up their cars. She just forgets that in the process, she is also making the lives of the neighborhood’s residents hell who see deviations of massive traffic driven into their neighborhood streets.
If I understand correctly, she enjoys seeing cars driven out of Paris, she makes it so painful for car owners to navigate Paris (and for neighborhood residents as well) thus hoping to force them out. But that sounds like sadism, defined as the enjoyment of inflicting pain onto others.
So is the mayor of Paris a self-righteous, sadistic Presidential candidate? No, God forbid, no. She is a caring and determined public official who wants the best for her people and will not let anything stop her in her journey.
Paris, October 15, 2021,
Zeejay