three mayors challenge the Prime Minister

The mayors of Aubervilliers, Pantin and the 19th arrondissement of Paris sent a letter to the new Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, asking her to act in the face of the “disastrous situation” Square Forceval, where more than a hundred crack users have gathered since September 2021.

“The status quo is not and will not be an alternative”, write the three mayors in this letter, sent Monday, May 30 to Matignon. Karine Franclet (Aubervilliers), Bertrand Kern (Pantin) and François Dagnaud (19th) ask Élisabeth Borne to “Make the resolution of this crisis a priority for action” of the new government.

At the end of September, between 150 and 200 drug addicts were moved by the police headquarters to this small square in the northeast of the capital, on the edge of Seine-Saint-Denis and on the edge of the ring road, in order to relieve the Jardins d ‘Éole (18th), previous meeting point. Since then, residents and traders have lived “in constant fear of attacks that punctuate their daily lives, undergo regular intrusions into their buildings, are confronted every day with scenes of prostitution and violence between users and drug traffickers”say the three chosen ones. “The atmosphere, already very heavy, will become explosive without a rapid and coordinated intervention between all the State services concerned”they say.

The three mayors ask “global care, health, medical and social” drug addicts “in a hospital environment, at a good distance from dense residential areas in working-class neighborhoods and traffic and consumption areas”but also “a repositioning of the Porte de la Villette national police services, with more resources”.

At the end of January, the prefect of police Didier Lallement had given up his plan to move this group of drug addicts to the 12th arrondissement and a railway wasteland in Bercy, in the face of opposition from the town hall of Paris and right-wing elected officials from Val-de- Marl.

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