French Riviera authorities backtrack on war against cruise ships
After the Mayor of Nice launched an attack on ‘floating hotels’ last month, a new proposal has been put forward
Aliver
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French Riviera authorities have backtracked on their plans to ban large cruise ships with a compromise on the number of passengers allowed in the resort town of Villefranche-sur-Mer.
The Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur, the local authority that covers Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer, has offered a new proposal that seeks to find a compromise between "public health interests and supporting the local economy".
Last month, the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi said he had plans to sign a bylaw banning ships more than 190m long and with a capacity of more than 900 passengers docking in Nice and neighbouring Villefranche-sur-Mer from next summer.
“I don’t want these floating hotels putting down their anchors in Nice,” Mr Estrosi previously said in January.
“These cruises that pollute [and] that pour out their low-cost customers who do not consume anything and who leave their rubbish behind them, well I say these cruises don’t have a place here.”
Now, a new proposal states instead that ships carrying up to 2,500 people can dock in Villefranche-sur-Mer, but only one at a time, with a cap of 65 per year.
However, the number has been slashed in half for the city of Nice, which is proposing that cruises with a maximum of 450 passengers can dock in its port.
"In order to reconcile the issues of public health, environmental protection and support for the local economy, this proposal provides for, in Villefranche harbour, limiting cruise stopovers to 65 per year, never welcoming more than one cruise ship per day and systematically restricting the maximum number of passengers to 2,500," the authority said in a press release, BFM Nice Côte d'Azur reported.
Nearly 90 cruise ships will stop at Villefranche-sur-Mer this year, including around 20 with more than 2,500 passengers, the port authority says, according to AFP. Some 125 cruise ships will dock at the port of Nice this year.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, Mr Estrosi said “Cruises: for the giants of the seas, it's still no!”
Along with the proposals for Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer, the mayor also hopes to see no more 5,000-passenger cruise ships, what he calls “monsters” in the middle of the harbour.
He also wants to see no more engines running while in the port, instead, boats should be hooked up to electricity.
“Without support, the ecological transition will not happen,” he wrote. “This is the whole point of this compromise, to protect our coastline and our populations. We are taking responsibility for it with the mayors of the metropolitan coastline!”
A vote on this proposal will take place during the next Port Council on 7 March.
Christophe Trojani, the mayor of Villefranche-sur-Mer, welcomed this compromise to BFM: "We had discussions with Roger Roux, mayor of Beaulieu and also president of the Port Council, and Christian Estrosi and the progress is satisfactory".
"When we make a unilateral decision, we are often badly advised,” he added. “When there is a constructive discussion that begins and we have all the ins and outs, we arrive at a solution that can be suitable.”
However, other local politicians have not been supportive of the new proposal. Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux, a municipal and metropolitan councillor who is also the president of the ecologist group at Nice council, criticized this proposal, stating that "the metropolis of Nice is backtracking."
"This irresponsible decision is an insult to the protection of our natural heritage and a sacrifice of our quality of life on the altar of a few short-term economic interests," she said, according to the local publication.
Mr Estrosi’s previous comments to ban large cruise ships and their contribution to pollution were welcomed by Ms Chesnel-Le Roux who said that the mayor’s decision was an “immense and historic victory”.
However, local restaurateurs and shopkeepers were worried that a ban could put their businesses in jeopardy.
Staff at the Trastevere restaurant in Villefranche-sur-Mer told the local newspaper Nice Matin that its number of diners doubles when cruise ships arrive, adding that they “consume a lot”.
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