Is owning your own house a “dead end” and an “ecological nonsense”? Following her controversial statements a few weeks ago, French Housing Minister Emmanuelle Wargon withdrew her statements in radio and television interviews.
In a speech, the minister had said that detached houses, “this dream built for the French in the 70s”, “this urbanization model that depends on the car”, is “ecological, economic and social nonsense”.
“The model with villa and garden is not sustainable and leads us to a dead end,” according to reports from several French media outlets.
Later in an interview with the radio channel RTL, the minister backpedaled on her statement but nevertheless rejected “plots of land very far from everything, poorly connected to the municipality center, without any service, something that is a bygone model,” according to her.
The minister’s original statement against homeownership has drawn criticism from the French building federation (FFB) which “deplored the persistent stigma of individual housing, contrary to the ambitions of the French,” on Twitter, while the house builders’ union said it was “disgusted by such comments from a Parisian elite who call themselves organic but were still very removed from the countryside, residents and their worries”.