Three years after the gas explosion in rue de Trévise (IXe), the victims are beginning to see the end of the tunnel.
Paris councilors unanimously adopted an agreement to compensate victims up to 20 million euros, after an extraordinary meeting on Monday.
The lawyers for the City, GRDF, the co-ownership trustee and the victims' associations had reached an agreement in principle just a week ago, two days before the commemoration of the tragedy.
On January 12, 2019, a violent explosion in the Faubourg-Poissonnière district killed four people, injured 66 and deprived 400 people of roofs, offices and shops.
A hundred residents have still not returned to their apartments.
LR, MoDem and Greens castigate the attitude of the City
The session opened with a minute of silence in tribute to the four dead.
Accused by the municipal opposition of having let the file drag on, Anne Hidalgo (PS) welcomed the implementation of this device.
“This is the first time in the history of compensation law that a public authority has taken part in public compensation.
This agreement is unprecedented and will set a precedent, “said the socialist, justifying the administrative delays.
Read alsoExplosion of the rue de Trévise: Inès, a victim, challenges Anne Hidalgo to finally be compensated
Arguments brushed aside by Rachida Dati, president of the Changer Paris group (Les Républicains).
“It was high time to finally be able to ratify this framework agreement, an agreement obtained by the mobilization of the victims and the pressure of the media in the face of this injustice and this contemptuous irresponsibility”, criticized the mayor of the 7th arrondissement, before d say that "these 20 million euros could have been paid almost immediately".
“We would have expected more humanity and compassion.
Our city has not been there, ”lastified in turn Maud Lelièvre, Councilor of Paris (MoDem, Democrats and Ecologists).
Ecologists, allies of Anne Hidalgo, also deplored these “three long years of waiting which seemed interminable to the victims”.
"It is unbearable, unacceptable, intolerable that so many shattered lives find themselves doubly victims, first victims of the explosion then of legal quibbles", underlined Fatoumata Koné, president of the environmental group of Paris.
Review applications before disbursement
Faced with criticism, Emmanuel Grégoire (PS), first deputy mayor of Paris, said "his regret at not having managed to go faster" and expressed his "shame at having to justify himself with a legal-administrative argument".
This fund will cover all bodily and material damage (including medical care that is not covered by the CPAM such as dental care, cosmetic surgery or psychological monitoring) pending the trial that could be held. theoretically in 2023. The City of Paris and the syndic of co-ownership were indicted "for homicides and involuntary injuries".
“We must still wait for all the parties concerned to sign the framework agreement and for the victims' requests to be examined before the first compensation is paid”, underlines Dominique Paris, president of the association Trévise together, which brings together the victims.