Rachida Dati, LR mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, again asks Anne Hidalgo to install a fence around the Champ-de-Mars in order to close it at night and thus better “fight against traffic”. “We will again, as in 2021, seize the mayor of Paris to obtain the closure of the Champ-de-Mars in order to fight against traffic, protect this garden and the tranquility of the residents, and avoid commercial overexploitation”, indicated the entourage of Rachida Dati on Friday at AFP, confirming information of Parisian.
In a letter sent on Wednesday, the leader of the Parisian right-wing opposition asks the former socialist presidential candidate “to consider the creation of a PSMV (preservation and enhancement plan) for the perimeter of the Champ-de-Mars and its surroundings”, synonymous according to her with “best guarantee of protection against the accelerated degradation of which this garden is struck”. The eastern part of the 7th arrondissement, including the Invalides and the Musée d’Orsay, already benefits from a PSMV, “first step to sanctuarize” the public garden and “then ask for additional protection with the fence”, according to the entourage of Date.
Already a refusal from the town hall in 2021
In March 2021, the LR and related group of the city council had already requested the installation of a fence around this green space, one of the largest in the capital, in order to limit night gatherings which “degenerate into noise pollution and degradations”. “The Champ-de-Mars is becoming the rallying point for drunk people, street vendors, even criminals who harass tourists,” said Councilor René-François Bernard, assistant to green spaces in the 7th.
The request had been rejected, the assistant for green spaces, Christophe Najdvoski, refusing to “privatize the Champ-de-Mars” and denouncing “a financial abyss” worth several tens of millions of euros as well as a “landscape aberration and heritage” amounting to “caging a national treasure”. The northern part of the Champ-de-Mars, which according to Christophe Najdovski welcomed 21 million visitors a year before the pandemic, was withdrawn in early February from the major redevelopment project between the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower, under pressure from elected environmentalists, who also got the City to gradually reduce the number of event days allowed on the site.