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The construction of a wall blocking a tunnel to prevent crack users from entering a Paris suburb has aroused “anger” and “disgust” among residents and the city’s mayor.
On Friday, authorities walled up a tunnel under the Paris ring road leading to the northeastern suburb of Pantin after evacuating around fifty crack smokers from a park called Jardin d’Eole in the 19th and 20th arrondissements of Paris.
Instead of building a wall, they say, the French government must find a permanent solution to the decades-old drug problem in Paris and prevent it from spreading to low-income suburbs.
Paris police prefect Didier Lallement said crack users had been expelled from the park because their presence “near several schools” had become “untenable”, adding that the wall was “necessary protection for the inhabitants of Pantin. “, which is part of the Department of Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the poorest in France.
‘Wall of shame’
Several residents of Pantin and the neighboring suburb of Aubervilliers slammed the so-called “wall of shame”.
Building a wall has “symbolic meaning. It’s disgusting,” said Sabrina Mahfoufi, a resident of Aubervilliers.
“This wall blocks the road to residents,” added Maxime Moroni, a Pantin used to borrow this tunnel by bike to get to Paris and avoid “hell” at the Porte de la Villette roundabout opening access to the highway. ramps.
The mayor of Pantin, Bertrand Kern, called the government’s decision “shameful and irresponsible” and called for an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Jean Castex.
“We see between 130 and 150 men and a few women in a sort of slum on the outskirts of Paris, in totally unsanitary conditions, and who today do not need a security response but a social and health response. “Kern said in a statement. interview with franceinfo on Sunday.
“It is by nature a temporary solution to an emergency situation, and does not satisfy anyone,” admitted Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti. RTL radio on Monday.
For several years, local authorities have been trying to keep crack users away from neighborhoods in the north-east of Paris. Local communities are calling for more sustainable solutions with housing and “safe consumption rooms”.
On September 16, French Prime Minister Jean Castex gave the green light to the creation of four new centers in Paris where people can “inject, smoke or ingest drugs safely under medical supervision”.
“The State will support the creation of these centers, provided that the appropriate type of place is found,” wrote the Castex in a letter, in response to a request at the beginning of the year from the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who is running as a candidate for the next presidential elections of the year.
Lallement and Hidalgo have repeatedly crossed swords over the socialist mayor’s demand for more supervised drug consumption sites, a proposal rejected by many on the right.
So far, only one is open in the capital near Gare du Nord and was opened in 2016. Hidalgo was forced to abandon plans to build a new one in eastern Paris this month. after an outcry from residents.
(with the press wires)
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