Le Figaro Marseille
You've heard this story before, if you haven't experienced it yourself.
A looming trip abroad, a well-deserved vacation.
And a few months before the departure date, a realization which has the gift of causing cold sweats: the identity card or passport is expired, and the trip compromised.
All that remains is to redo your identity papers and then face another obstacle course: that of securing an appointment to obtain the precious sesame on time.
Slots that are going like hot cakes, even more so since the health crisis where French town halls had to face a backlog of requests.
A problem from which Marseille, the second largest city in France, has not escaped.
And in this context of crisis, some saw it as a rather lucrative market, as reported by
La Provence
.
Companies have in fact specialized in the resale of slots to have an appointment at town hall.
For a tidy sum of around a hundred euros, these companies promise an appointment within 24 hours.
How ?
By blocking these slots en masse to offer them to their customers.
A phenomenon which affects other cities in France, as RMC highlighted in an article published last April.
Also read: Go to the United Kingdom without a passport?
This will soon be possible for some travelers
A legal practice
In Marseille, the alert was given by the unions.
“But it’s not illegal,”
laments
Françoise Risterucci, head of the CGT territorial union, to Le
Figaro .
In any case, behind it, it’s always the same question: if the town hall gave more resources to municipal services, we wouldn’t be here!”
When contacted, Marseille town hall refused to respond to requests from Le
Figaro
on this issue
.
In the columns of
La Provence
, the deputy in charge of civil status, Sophie Roques, affirms that the new appointment making system recently developed by the municipality will make it possible to
“know the IP addresses of those who connect”
.
The elected official promises that in the event of multiple connections via the same IP address, a report will be made to the prefecture.