On the 10th day of the garbage collectors’ strike in the capital, the government decides to go into force. Unsurprisingly, the Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, on the orders of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, informed Anne Hidalgo in the evening of his decision to requisition garbage collectors, which she had refused to do beforehand.
As of Tuesday evening, Gérald Darmanin had warned that if the PS mayor of Paris refused to carry out the requisitions herself, the State would do so for reasons of public health. Wednesday afternoon, before the Senate, the Minister of the Interior repeated it.
While the pension reform project has passed the crucial stage of the joint joint commission (CMP), 7,600 tonnes of waste cluttered the sidewalks of the capital on Wednesday morning, according to the town hall. The garbage collectors’ conflict gave Paris a bad image, especially abroad, which the government and the town hall quickly used in the political arena.
The town hall and the State return the responsibility
Through the voice of its spokesperson Olivier Véran, the executive accused Anne Hidalgo of “imposing” on Parisians “the consequences” of its support for the strike movement against pensions. From the start of the review of the reform at the end of January, the former presidential candidate of 2022 had chosen to display the Town Hall as a “solidarity town hall” of the social movement.
The reaction of the Hôtel de Ville was immediate. “It is paradoxical that the State is asking local authorities to solve a problem that it has itself created when the requisition is, by right, a competence of the State”, replied Anne Hidalgo to Laurent Nuñez.
Three waste incinerators shut down
In a letter on Tuesday, the police headquarters had nevertheless underlined, based on the General Code of Local Authorities, that “the town hall holds the safety police on the public highway”. It is therefore “within its competence to request a private company or to requisition the agents”, added the prefecture, considering that it could “in a second time” give notice to the City to do so.
In fact, it will be complicated for the prefect to carry out these requisitions on Thursday, when the Senate and then the National Assembly must decide on the adoption of the pension reform project, with or without recourse to article 49 -3 which allows adoption without a vote.
The town hall also stressed that the outcome of the crisis was above all at the door of the three incinerators in the inner suburbs blocked for ten days, and which do not depend on it but on the metropolitan union, Syctom.