Villeneuve-sur-Lot: When the Aérofestival becomes a political issue

While aerobatics have been occupying the Villeneuvois sky since Tuesday and a Mirage 2000 proudly sits in the city center, politics is taking its place amidst the aerial acrobatics. The Villeneuve C’Vous group, embodying the left in the municipal council, does not really like the enthusiasm of the majority for the winged high mass which will be held until Sunday. “We will not go to the Aerofestival”, headlines Thomas Bouyssonnie’s team in a scathing press release. If the words are addressed more to the mayor Guillaume Lepers than to the organizers mobilized on the tarmac of Rogé, the demonstration still takes its rank. It embodies, according to the left, the antithesis of its environmental vision: “Seven days during which we will burn tons of kerosene, in the middle of a heatwave.” The Aerofestival would also show the contradictions of the municipality in matters of ecology. “We cannot, in the same breath, burn fuel for an entire week and praise its “green” action on the pretext of a leisure cycle path on the banks of the Lot, for example. This double discourse has a name: greenwashing. »

Financial arbitrations denounced

Beyond the carbon footprint, Villeneuve C’Vous points out the financial trade-offs. Faced with a level of subsidies granted to the flying club deemed too high, “culture sacrificed”. This week marked the presentation of another festival scheduled for the start of the school year, Villeneuve indulges, the 2026 edition of which is marked by some savings. “Reading and heritage were to be the two pillars of the promised cultural policy. Result: the Book Fair amputated, and even threatened with suppression, saved at the last minute, and at a discount, by protests coming from the very ranks of the majority. We denounced the lack of ambition, Mr. Lepers gave us the proof in three months,” continues the left-wing opposition. The bill becomes even heavier with the denunciation of the recently increased compensation of elected officials, contrasting with “the savings imposed on everyone else”, that is to say municipal services and agents. “Savings for public services, largesse for prestige; rigor for the agents, generosity for the image. These choices are not budgetary inevitabilities, they are political choices. In three months, Guillaume Lepers has already chosen to deny those of his campaign.