The debate on the cleanliness of Paris has been relaunched in recent days via social networks where many photos, posted under the hashtag #saccageparis, have reacted to the City led by the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo and the right-wing opposition.
Graffiti on the walls, garbage in the street, bottles or rubbish floating on the canals … supporting photos, many Internet users have denounced an “abandonment”, which a “rampage”, having according to them transformed Paris into ” dump ”or“ trash city ”that looks like a“ favella ”.
Many have also questioned the management of Ms. Hidalgo, a possible leftist candidate for the presidential election in 2022.
Faced with this hashtag that has become viral, the City of Paris denounced “a campaign of denigration”, affirming on its Twitter account that “like all cities in France, Paris is faced with incivility and problems of regulation of the “public space” and that “some photos posted are old or taken before the passage of the cleaning teams”.
The City specified that “2,500 agents intervene every day” and “throughout Paris”, but that the workforce was “currently reduced by 10% due to the spread of Covid-19”, which “may cause delays treatment “.
For their part, the right-wing elected representatives (opposition) asked in a press release to organize at the Council of Paris “an exceptional meeting devoted to the cleanliness and salubrity of public space”.
“It is time for Ms. Hidalgo and her allies to open their eyes to the decline of Paris. Behind these photos, there is insecurity, ghettoization, the social and economic decline of Paris! “, Said on Twitter the mayor Les Républicains of the 7th arrondissement Rachida Dati, Ms. Hidaldo’s opponent in the last municipal elections.
The president of the National Rally Marine Le Pen also reacted, estimating in a tweet that “the degradation of our beautiful capital by the Hidalgo team is a national suffering which should not leave any French indifferent”.
The anonymous PanamePropre account, which claims the authorship of the hashtag #saccageparis, said it did not think it “would take this magnitude.” But “the current disaster could not remain without massive reaction”, according to him.