The Minister ensures that the conclusion of the experts’ report, which was presented yesterday will be followed …
If the people vote for the proposed airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, the airport will have only have one runway, instead of the two currently planned. It has been confirmed by Minister Ségolène Royal. The environment minister has responded on Wednesday, the day after the publication of a report by experts, who believes that the current project is “oversized”.
“If there decision to transfer (from Nantes airport to Notre-Dame-des-Landes), the report will stand, I tell you. It will indeed be a single runway. It is not worth making people believe it will be otherwise. 200 hectares will be returned to the farmers, “she said.
A double-reading report
In the last two months the Minister had charged three general engineers to examine the “complementary” or alternative solutions to this airport project, which has been on the drawing board for 50 years. “The various scenarios studied are summarized after critical analysis, in a choice between modernization of the current airport for the region, Nantes-Atlantique airport or the transfer to the new site of Notre-Dame-des-Landes resized to a single runway instead of the two originally planned,” concluded the experts.
But the readings of the document diverge. Matignon and several supporters in the project felt for them that this study validated “the relevance of a transfer.” As for the hypothesis of reducing the project to a single runway, the Prime Minister’s office questioned his “legal feasibility.”
Reactions elected
The words of Ségolène Royal “are very oriented”, found Philippe Grosvalet, Socialist President of the Loire-Atlantique, who prefers to refer to the Prime Minister, “much more consistent.” “If there has to be a dialogue on the design, so I’m open, on the sole condition that this does not delay the case,” he added, however.
“I solemnly ask the President of the Republic to end Ségolène Royal improvisations and keep the state’s commitments,” responded the president of Pays de la Loire Bruno Retailleau.
