TROUBLES come, troubles go and the socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, knows that very well. However, she is being repeatedly reminded by her critics that illegal immigrants come but they never go away.
Whatever her reasons, the mayor has obstinately stuck to her controversial project of constructing a refugee camp consisting of five yellow buildings on the plush green La Muette lawns, along a graceful and tree-lined avenue of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, a sector where mostly affluent people live but which is especially reputed for its elegant apartment buildings, gardens and streets.
On Tuesday March 15, some 50,000 residents of the area organised a protest rally and signed a petition urging the mayor to give up what they term as her “mad adventure”. They are backed in their initiative by the mayor of the 16th arrondissement, Claude Goasguen.
Referring to the Sangatte refugee camp along the northern France coastline which had to be closed down by the authorities in 2002 when it had become a base for criminal activities, Goasguen says the residents of his arrondissement do not want another Sangatte next to them.
“In addition, given the Nov 13 massacres by terrorists,” he adds, “the mayor of Paris is playing with a fire even deadlier than Sangatte.”
But then Hidalgo has her own ideological argument. Defending her initiative, the mayor of Paris, originally from Spain and born in a poor neighbourhood of San Fernando city, says her plan is intended to erase “social diversities”.
Francine LaGrange, who lives in the 16th arrondissement and teaches in a school only a few steps away from the spot intended to house the future refugee camp, says: “Instead of taking a decision all by herself, the mayor could have first consulted all the local leaders.”
A point that was confirmed by Goasguen in an interview with a daily newspaper reporter: “I am supposed to be the mayor of the 16th arrondissement but I never received a single telephone call from the mayor of Paris asking me to discuss the matter with her before she made it public.”
While the controversy rages on, there still remain a number of obstacles in the way before the intended camp could see the light of the day. The first of these is a construction permit to be issued by the legal authorities, a liability that has to be fulfilled before laying the first brick. Then steps in the matter of obtaining green light from the ministry of environment which is required to be convinced that the intended construction would not be an aesthetic eyesore or an environmental threat.
Not only art enthusiasts but also professionals are troubled by the project, and for the moment this is a relatively ignored reason.
The proposed site is only across the street from the Marmottan museum that houses the greatest collection in the world of Monet paintings and other impressionist masterpieces. Nearly half a million people enter Marmottan each year and experts say there certainly is going to be a serious fall in the number of visitors, especially foreigners, once the camp is erected.
Goasguen also has an undeniable legal argument in his favour. Hidalgo’s proposed project is to be built on a piece of land that is technically part of the legendary Parisian park, the Bois de Boulogne. According to a law passed in 1957, Bois de Boulogne has been declared a historical monument. Goasguen says it would be illegal to raise a building in a site already legally classified as such.
“The mayor of Paris knows this well,” says journalist Jean Lauvergeat, “and that is precisely the reason she never made a telephone call to the mayor of the 16th arrondisement or wanted to discuss the matter with him.”
The writer is a journalist based in Paris.
Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2016
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.