This desperate act was her last resort, a last SOS.
A 59-year-old Parisian attempted to set herself on fire on Wednesday January 19 under the windows of the mayor (PS) of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, place de l'Hôtel de Ville, in the 4th arrondissement.
Information from Le
Parisien
, confirmed this Thursday to
Le Figaro
by the Paris prosecutor's office, which has opened an investigation into the causes of the injuries.
Read alsoSquatters: “Ultimate dispossession”
The facts took place at the beginning of the afternoon, a little before 2 p.m.
The 50-year-old doused herself in gasoline before trying to light a lighter.
A police rescue team present nearby barely had time to control her by tackling her on the ground.
Warned, the firefighters of the Sévigné barracks, in the 4th arrondissement, took charge of the victim and transported him to the hospital.
Read alsoEmmanuelle Wargon: "The squat is no longer a good vein in our country"
Unknown to the police, this cleaning lady in the schools, would have sought, by her act, to challenge the mayor of Paris on her situation, as told by
Le Parisien
.
She would also have displayed an explicit sign: “
Madame Hidalgo!
Help us !
We beg you.
By signing the petition.
We inherited a small studio when our mother died in 2018. A false tenant occupies the premises with his family.
We can not do anything.
Justice fails us.
»
Forced to pay their squatters' bills
Posted on Change.org, the petition
"Help this family so that their apartment is returned to them"
has collected 272 signatures out of the 500 expected.
Since 2018, the victim, Jeanine, as well as her brother Pascal and her sister Monique have inherited from their mother a small studio of around twenty square meters in the Latin quarter of the capital, rue Saint-Séverin (5th).
A home whose value would be around 350,000 euros.
But what this low-income family thought was a godsend soon turned into a poisoned gift.
And for good reason, it's been almost ten years since a man, his wife and his three children settled there following a "
real
" tenant, without saying anything to anyone, still according to
Le Parisien .
.
Read alsoSquatters: why the scourge persists despite the new law
These squatters would have taken advantage of the illness of the elderly owner and under guardianship to settle illegally in the small apartment.
Without a lease, they would have paid a “pseudo-rent” of 540 euros for some time, in the early 2010s, to a real estate agency.
Today, the file would be in the hands of an agent.
“The building charges are falling.
We get the bills.
There are works.
We can't pay.
We took credits to cope.
We went so far as to consider selling the apartment for a pittance to companies that sell squatted apartments at bargain prices.
»
Pascal, Jeanine's brother, at the Parisian.
Destitute, the family would have initiated legal proceedings for an eviction, in vain.
“
We have been in the process for three years.
The father of a squatter family, recently naturalized French, would work and even have two companies.
He also took a lawyer
, ”explains Pascal.
And Monique adds: “
The building charges are falling.
We get the bills.
There are works.
We can't pay.
We took credits to cope.
We went so far as to consider selling the apartment for a pittance to companies that sell squatted apartments at bargain prices.
We had an offer of 100,000 euros.
We also have attorney fees.
»
Read alsoThese companies that buy squatted housing at a discount
Worse still, heavy repair work would have been launched in the building and the squatter occupants would have been forced to go and live elsewhere for 15 days: “
We had to pay them fifteen nights in an Appart'City.
It cost us 3200 euros,
”laments Pascal.
This story echoes the attempt, last Saturday in Bobigny, of an owner of a squatted pavilion to take justice into his own hands, with the help of individuals "recruited" on social networks, by peacefully dislodging the occupants of his home.
Result: 23 people in custody.
Despite new provisions that toughened the law on the illegal occupation of homes a year ago, with in particular an acceleration of the eviction procedure, it is clear that the puzzle is far from being resolved.
