We know the proverb: at night all cats are gray.
But in the midst of a garbage collectors' strike, the comings and goings of garbage trucks, even at night, do not go unnoticed.
According to the mayor of the 17th arrondissement, Geoffrey Boulard, the City of Paris has "
signed a contract with a private service provider to collect waste at night in certain districts of Paris affected by the garbage collectors' strike
".
Read alsoRetirements: the Paris garbage collectors' strike extended until Monday March 20
"Double speech"
According to Geoffrey Boulard, it is the collection company Derichbourg - which also manages the collection of household waste in a large part of the capital - which would have been called upon in the 6th, 9th, 16th and 17th arrondissements, where the Trash cans piled up endlessly on the public thoroughfare.
Geoffroy Boulard posted on his Twitter feed the video of the passage of a dumpster picking up waste in his borough last night, around 11 p.m.
In the process, BFMTV also relayed the information, referring to “
garbage collectors [who] are not supposed to be there
” and who are “
not comfortable in front of our camera and do not want to be filmed.
According to the mayor of the 6th arrondissement, Jean-Pierre Lecoq,
".
If this "
helping hand
" could prove beneficial for Parisians, one question remains unanswered: who gave the authorization to these private garbage collectors to intervene in districts normally managed by the public management of Paris garbage collectors?
For the elected official, no hesitation: “
it was the mayors of the districts who put pressure, but in the end, it was indeed the central town hall which ratified the decision
”.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the City of Paris explains "
mobilizing and pooling the means at its disposal
", recalling that "
there are already private service providers who operate in Paris
" and that these are "
distributed
" with "
three priorities : safety, cleaning of food markets and security
”.
"
The City has not called on new service providers and has redeployed its current staff to the designated areas
", defends the municipality.
If Geoffroy Boulard is angry, it is because of the "
double talk
" that, according to him, the town hall of Paris would hold.
“
The first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire is lying because he said yesterday that it was not possible to call on private companies in the boroughs managed by management, but we can see that no”, affirms the elected
official, who maintains that the City opts for night tours so as "
not to offend the unions
".
The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and her first deputy do not hide their opposition to the pension reform project.
after the strike
The use of private companies should continue beyond the garbage collectors' strike, to "
restore the situation
" in all the boroughs, according to Jean-Pierre Lecocq.
The sequence, in any case, gives food for thought to supporters of privatization.
The mayor of the 6th arrondissement imagines, for example, a total delegation of waste collection to private companies, which would make it possible to assign municipal agents - currently outnumbered - to "cleanliness
and sweeping of roads
".
But Jean-Pierre Lecocq would first like all the players - deputies, borough mayors, prefects - to meet around the table to discuss the subject.
“
Because cleanliness will be one of the major issues in the municipal elections of 2026
“, he feels.