Just days after Mayor Christian Estrosi made headlines with an attempt to turn away a cruise ship, a local court has overturned his order to limit cruise arrivals in the Port of Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer.
The ruling, handed down on Sunday, July 13, stated that Estrosi’s move was illegal and beyond his authority and power as mayor.
The administrative court said that only the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes department has the power to regulate ship traffic, stating the following: “It is up to the prefect to organize the entry, exit, and movement of ships.”
It was Prefect Laurent Hottiaux himself who filed the court challenge against the mayor’s decree to remove these large vessels from his city’s shores.
Estrosi’s controversial order, issued on July 9, was being sold to the public as an important step in the fight against climate change and to preserve marine life around the port.
But this wasn’t the first time the mayor was critical of cruise ships. He previously stated that cruise ships are “three times worse than airplanes” in terms of pollution.
He also stated earlier this year that “cruises that pollute and dump their low-cost clientele who consume nothing but leave their waste behind have no place with us.”
The mayor’s stance took a dramatic turn on July 11 when Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas, carrying over 3,100 passengers (well above Estrosi’s self-imposed 2,500-passenger limit), dropped anchor off Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Estrosi, aboard a port police boat, attempted to deliver his new rules directly to the ship’s captain.
Christian Estrosi The mayor of Nice 🇫🇷came today with a municipal police boat with a document informing the Voyager of the Seas that it had to leave the harbor of Villefranche-sur-Mer 🇫🇷
The captain denied him access on board, the passengers were forbidden to leave the ship pic.twitter.com/5aAmGAYWYo
— MaritimeNews (@MaritimeNews_) July 3, 2025
However, maritime protocol prevented him from boarding, leading to a viral video showing the mayor shouting, “You are not allowed to be here, you are nothing!” while waving his letter from the small vessel beside the vessel.
The mayor of Nice isn’t giving up, threatening to sue the State if they don’t act on large cruise ships.
Many see his actions as more of a political show than a real environmental effort. For now, his fight against cruise ship pollution faces big legal issues, but the attempt here appears to be more headline-driven than anything else.
Looking for the Best Cruise Deals?
Search Multiple Sites at Once
Instant Real Time Pricing
Search Now
