Several hundred protesters call on mayor to resign – video

Several hundred protesters call on mayor to resign – video

Protesters have called for the resignation of Paris's Socialist mayor, saying that she is unfit for the job. In the recent period, the French capital has seen growing chaos and mounting heaps of rubbish, with crime also on the rise.

WORLD POLITICS JUNE 28. 2022 12:35

Founded in 2021, the citizens’ movement called Saccage Paris (Trashed Paris) decided to take action. After more than a year of activity on online platforms, they took to the streets to draw attention to the unacceptable sanitary conditions in the French capital. The collective organised a rally, gathering about 200 to 250 people, in the square in front of the town hall building to protest against Paris getting ever more filthy and the management of the city ever deteriorating.

The movement pointed out that under Paris’s left-wing leadership, the city has become all the filthier and unlivable in recent years, so the group has launched a petition asking the prefect to place the city under guardianship.

The protesters have called on Mayor Anne Hidalgo to resign in a post on Twitter, arguing that the Socialist mayor no longer has any legitimacy after gleaning only 2.17 per cent in the presidential elections, meaning only 23 thousand people voted for her out of one million.

Deplorable conditions prevail in the French capital with filth, drug addicts and crime, as it has been repeatedly reported in the media. In February 2020, the news portal CNews reported that the neighbourhood around the Eiffel Tower, one of the most popular attractions in Paris, was infested with rats.

Politician of the Les Republicans Aurelien Veron shared a video on Twitter showing rats swarming in the streets of the capital, noting that the city leadership treats harmful pests better than Parisians.

#SaccageParis, used in reference to the filth and rubbish overwhelming the streets and the increasingly dilapidated state of public buildings, was the eighth most frequently used hashtag in 2021, suggesting that that the population is extremely concerned about the conditions in Paris.

It provoked quite an outrage when Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo commented on Twitter about a documentary made in the 1960s that the conditions depicted in it were characteristic only of the bygone old times.

Residents of the capital interviewed complained that Paris was extremely filthy, so much so that some places are literally covered with dog excrement.

Many say that Paris is near the hygienic rock bottom experienced in the 1960s, but dirt is not the only problem in the city. Drug addicts have been making life miserable for the residents of the 19th district. The public park Jardin d’Eole and the nearby Stalingrad metro station have been flooded with drug dealers and their clients, with locals afraid to leave their homes in those areas.

Another increasingly large problem in Paris is that not only tourists but criminals also returned to the city after the lifting of coronavirus restrictions. V4NA reported earlier that the areas around the main attractions were flooded with migrant thieves claiming to be minors, fraudsters and illegal vendors.

The protest at the weekend was attended by several politicians, including Jean-Pierre Lecoq, the mayor of district 6 delegated by The Republicans, who said that a demonstration of 200-300 people is not bad for a start, but certainly not enough to put pressure on the city leadership, Le Parisien writes.

Rachida Dati, mayor of the 7th district, wrote on Twitter that Paris currently has the highest number of criminal acts in the country, causing harm to residents and tourists alike. Dati asked on Twitter what was stopping Anne Hidalgo from arming the city police and guaranteeing the safety of every Parisian.

WORLD POLITICS

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anne hidalgo, crack, dirtiness, france, insecurity, paris, rats