Low-emissions vote shows how clean air no longer charms the French

The global surge in car ownership after World War Two created two notable strands of French society. 

At one extreme were the rich and glamorous who favoured gas-guzzlers from the US. 

Movie industry types in Paris joined other celebrities in promoting the huge vehicles as representing slick modernity. 

The latest must-have automobiles from General Motors popped up in hit films and racy novels, and became the ultimate status symbol at a time when environmental concerns were all but non-existent and Americanisation was not a dirty word. 

Beyond the small but high-profile group who could afford an import from across the Atlantic, many others bought fuel-efficient classics such as the flimsy Citroën 2CV. 

Initially designed for farmers who were only just giving up their horses and carts, the ‘Umbrella on Wheels’ represented a gentler, thriftier France. 

The 2CV went the distance too – those utilitarian tin snails can still be seen on roads today – the last one rolled off the production line as late as 1990. 

A full 35 years on, the spirit of the 2CV should technically still be in its ascendancy, with high polluters consigned to the scrapyard of history. 

In fact, the fight for clean air in France has just suffered a mighty setback as MPs voted in June to abolish their country’s low-emission traffic zones. 

Known as ZFEs (zones à faibles émissions) they were a key part of Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to clean up the environment in congested cities and towns. 

Low or zero-emission vehicles such as electric and hydrogen cars would earn a Crit’Air sticker rating permitting entry into ZFEs, while the old-world polluters would not be allowed anywhere near, however cool they might look. 

Pollution and class divisions

Critics from both Right and Left argued that ZFEs punished poorer drivers who could not afford green cars. 

It was their vehicles which were getting most of the €135 fines for going into zones illegally. 

Marine Le Pen described the vote which moved to end ZFEs as “a victory so long hoped for by millions of French people who are victims of an unacceptable policy of social segregation”. 

Such language highlights the extreme difficulty that politicians such as Mr Macron have in forging an environmentally cleaner world. 

In 2018, within a year of gaining office, he gave in to weeks of rioting by the so-called gilets jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement by scrapping eco-taxes on the cost of fuel. 

The move made a mockery of the Paris Climate Change Agreement of 2015, but the president was desperate to stop the civil unrest. 

In fact, the violence did not stop. Protests continue to take to the street any time Mr Macron attempts to place high-cost green policies above the wishes of ordinary people struggling in a never-ending cost-of-living crisis. 

This summer has already seen farmers blocking roads with their tractors to complain about measures that threaten their livelihoods. 

Everything from limits on building irrigation basins to restrictions on crop protection products and cattle breeding are meant to cut down on harmful emissions, but they come at huge cost. 

This stark economic reality is a disaster for environmentalists, but it also plays into the hands of aggressive capitalists who believe that nothing should stand in the way of creating and enjoying wealth. 

The types who still like to cruise around Paris in their tank-like steel monsters certainly believe that polluted streets and the associated health risks, not to mention the long-term destruction of our planet, are a price worth paying for their freedoms.