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The date was ticked on all the agendas of elected officials, majority and opposition.
The first Wednesday of March corresponded to the end of the reprieve for the demolition of the Acropolis convention center in Nice.
In theory, diggers can attack the huge yellow building in the city center.
And carry out the major project to extend the green corridor to make an urban forest, the matrix of Mayor Christian Estrosi's program.
A stone's throw away, the National Theater of Nice has already been razed in this will.
In January, employees had appealed to the administrative court and won their case to delay the construction site.
The municipality had two months to provide additional information to the project.
It's done.
“The corporate social committee spoke today.
The last required procedures have therefore been completed for the continuation of the extension of the Promenade du Paillon”
, specifies the municipality.
Which even gives a date on which no more bricks of the Jacques Médecin period, the former city councilor, will be visible: the end
of
July
2024
. end of a long saga of fifteen years, since the arrival at the
Even if the employees have
“still the head in the bucket”
, dixit Guy Fernandez, the secretary of the CSE, they obtained
“guarantees with reluctance”
.
“We can never be satisfied, it is death in the soul that we leave Acropolis.
We will never accept it!”
, explains the man who has worked there for more than thirty years.
Following the appeal, they ensured that there was no dismissal.
Employees will be relocated either to the Palais des expositions or to the Palais Nikaïa.
A political challenge that never ends
If employees try to turn the page, some politicians do not want to abandon the field of protest.
Since the beginning of the year, a virulent political opposition had been engaged.
On a barely concealed pre-campaign background for the municipal elections of 2026. The deputy for the 1st constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes, Éric Ciotti, had engaged in a standoff with his best enemy, dealing at all costs with “madness”
or
even
"mismanagement"
the project.
On February 2, he had organized a demonstration on the steps of the palace, bringing together 700 people.
Environmental Opposition and Reconquest!
of the municipal council also protested for a long time against this demolition.
Everyone in their corner was fighting for the same cause, despite a very political outstretched attempt from Philippe Vardon to Éric Ciotti.
Read also Municipal 2026: a poll gives the advantage to Estrosi against Ciotti in Nice
The group "Find Nice" of the elected ex-National Rally does not intend to stop there and activated in the shadows this week, as the fateful date approaches.
Two meetings were held.
Philippe Vardon assumes it: he does not rule out the idea of a demonstration until the last moment to prevent tractors and trucks from carrying away the ruins of Acropolis.
With a lawyer, they will try to file a new appeal.
“We have targeted a few flaws, in the management of the management, the cultural continuity, but it is not yet obvious”
, he underlines.
Around the table at the initiative of his group, the elected ex-ecologist Sylvie Bonaldi, associations, a few more employees, restaurateurs and hoteliers, according to one of the participants.
For an appeal to be valid, it must come from an association and the cause must directly concern its members.
Hope is therefore slim.
For his part, Éric Ciotti did not wish to react and did not respond to Philippe Vardon's call.
“It is now in the hands of the mayor and he will quickly realize his madness
,” underlines support from the parliamentarian, who half-hopes to see the work continue.
“At the first blow of the pickaxe, he will be all the more responsible, and we will let it be known!
, already slips a detractor of the president of the LR.
He only did show politics.”
The curtain is almost closed on Acropolis.