Crack in Paris: Darmanin wants to speed up the schedule and puts pressure on Hidalgo

The communication war between the State and the City of Paris continues.

This Tuesday, at the National Assembly, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, returned to the evacuation of rue Riquet.

Last Friday, this road in the nineteenth arrondissement of Paris, squatted since the end of June by crack users, had been the scene of a large police operation.

The drug addicts who were there had been taken in buses to the square de la Villette in order to appease the Stalingrad district.

A surprise action, even for Anne Hidalgo, the mayor (PS) of Paris.

In his press release, Didier Lallement indicated that the installation of drug addicts in the square de la Villette was only a temporary situation, "pending the concrete establishment of reception rooms by the town hall of Paris".

Except that these places "will not be operational for several weeks or even months, no project having been submitted at this stage", further underlined the prefect of police.

A meeting between the city and the state will be held on Thursday

Gérald Darmanin seems to want to speed up the process, speaking of a situation, Square de la Villette, "which can only last a few hours or a few days".

And the minister to reveal that, "Thursday morning, there will be, under the authority of the prefect of the Ile-de-France region and the prefect of police, with the town hall of Paris and with all the elected officials who will want to participate, a meeting which will make it possible to put an end to this situation very quickly, so that the mayor of Paris can suggest places to us.

It is not a security issue but a health issue ”.

The scourge of crack is above all a health issue.

I took my responsibilities and evacuated drug addicts around rue Riquet.

It is now up to the city of Paris to suggest places to welcome these people.

pic.twitter.com/ZNoByoHBF4

- Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) September 28, 2021

Anne Hidalgo had announced, during three meetings organized in June with the mayors of the North-East of Paris and the actors of risk reduction, that a lasting solution would be put in place in September.

Presumably places of reception and accommodation, with health and social monitoring.

The City has so far not reacted to Gerald Darmanin's comments.