LGV Toulouse-Bordeaux: "If it does not go through Agen, we would not understand anything" (G.Meric)

"If the LGV between Toulouse and Bordeaux does not go through Agen, we would not understand anything anymore!", Did not hesitate to declare Georges Méric, the socialist president of the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne, during his wishes toThe press Wednesday, January 26.This position of the local elected official follows an interview with the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, granted to the Petit Bleu d'Agen, Friday January 21.In this interview, the Head of Government threatens to suppress Agen station from the route of this future infrastructure.

These statements follow the choice of the Lot-et-Garonne Departmental Council not to participate in the financing of the future LGV Bordeaux-Toulouse, judging their investment capacities too amputeed for future years.About 120 million euros were requested from the New Aquitaine community.Nevertheless, the equation seems complex because the community of communes of Agen voted favorably the financing of the project.Nevertheless, on the side of the prefecture of Toulouse-Occitania, of which the prefect is the coordinator of the financing of this LGV between the Pink and Bordeaux city, this threat of a non-stop in Agen has been brandished behind the scenes since September already.

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In addition, while certain communities of Occitania regret this lack of territorial solidarity towards them, Georges Méric refuses to take a stand."The Lot-et-Garonne does not want to finance the LGV Toulouse-Bordeaux, unanimously it seems to me. It is a democratic decision that I do not have to comment," launches the socialist president recently re-elected for a secondmandate at the head of the departmental council.

Second financier ahead of Toulouse Métropole

To understand the importance of this posture of the Lot-et-Garonne Departmental Council, it must be remembered that for this LGV between Toulouse and Bordeaux assessed at almost 11 billion euros, the government has requested that 40% of its financingBe provided by local authorities of Occitanie and New Aquitaine (to which must be added 40% of the State and 20% of Europe).Nevertheless, this participation will be reduced to the future via the creation of a special tax on equipment voted very recently by the National Assembly.

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With the Occitanie Regional Council as "leader" as the first financier, this region had no trouble finding an agreement to share their share of funding.In other words, the opposite of New Aquitaine when in the past the old Midi-Pyrénées region had participated in the financing of the LGV Bordeaux-Tours section provided for an extension to Toulouse in the long term.

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A basic income for young people on rails

On the occasion of his greeting ceremony to the press, there was also a question of solidarity under the social aspect with the future experimentation of the basic income for young people aged 18 to 24 living in Haute-Garonne.After the approval of the deliberation on December 14 to start the project, "we received thousands of positive responses from young people who wish to experiment with the system," said Arnaud Simion, vice-president of the Departmental Council ofHaute-Garonne, in charge of local social action, alongside Georges Méric during this press conference.

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Arnaud Simion, alongside Georges Méric, Wednesday, January 26, took stock of the basic income project for young people in Haute-Garonne (credits: Rémi Benoit).

To carry out this study, the Departmental Council has started work for several months with six researchers from the Interdisciplinary Solidarity, Societies and Territories (Lisst) laboratory of Jean-Jaurès University in Toulouse.In parallel, the community has just found an agreement to associate the Bernard Maris Chair of Sciences Po Toulouse.Founded in 2018, this chair created in tribute to the Toulouse economist who lost his life in the attack on the newspaper Charlie Hebdo works in particular on "the economy differently".

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