Several dozen people, including the actor Guillaume Gallienne or the European deputy Nathalie Loiseau gathered on Sunday to demand "
the sanctuary of the trees and gardens of the Champ-de-Mars
", at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, noted a journalist from the AFP.
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"
Despite the announcements of the city, the risks continue to weigh on the trees and the gardens of the Champ-de-Mars, the building permits for the restaurants-baggage rooms of the Champ-de-Mars have not been withdrawn
", underlined Christine Nedelec, president of France Nature Environnement Paris (FNE Paris), who has threatened to take the case to court if the town hall of Paris does not reconsider its project to redevelop the district which threatens around twenty trees, sometimes centenarians .
Several associations, including FNE Paris, Friends of the Champ-de-Mars, Sites & Monuments, SOS Paris or the National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA) had called for this gathering which took place without incident.
A petition put online by these associations has collected more than 137,000 signatures to date.
The town hall planned to revegetate and "
pedestrianize
" the surroundings of the Trocadéro and the Eiffel Tower while removing certain trees to build luggage storage for visitors and premises for employees.
Faced with rising outcry against this project, the town hall tried to calm things down by promising that “
there will be no tree felling, the commitment is made by Anne Hidalgo
”.
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“
We are asking for something official.
The town hall communicates a lot about the environment but, in fact, does exactly the opposite
, ”explained to AFP the secretary general of SOS Paris Philippe Khayat.
"
If the building permits are maintained, which seems to be the case, the trees are threatened
", affirms for his part Alexis Boniface of the GNSA, considering that there is "
no confirmation of the abandonment of the project of the mayor of Paris, on the contrary
”.