"Our town is damaged!" says Jean-François Darmois, mayor of Nevoy, a town of 1,200 inhabitants, bordering Gien (Loiret). It is on land owned by the association Vie et Lumière that the annual meeting of the Gypsies of France is held. "Travellers told us there would be around 20,000. But, in reality, they are between 38000,40000 and 130,<>. They cannot all be accommodated on the <> ha that belong to the association. So they spill over onto private land. The rain doesn't help. Hundreds of caravans are parked on a farmer's land, turned into a quagmire. His fodder for the year is screwed! " he is annoyed.
He accuses the State and its ministries of not providing solutions: "Like most elected officials in the department, all sides combined, I call on the State to take its responsibilities in the face of this unprecedented situation. " He denounces incivility: "As they do not have sufficient sanitary facilities, there are droppings everywhere. They steal power from the Enedis networks. Cables cross the roads and drag everywhere. I was forced to close the fire hydrants of the commune for the duration of the gathering and I had to sign an agreement with the firefighters to ensure safety otherwise. »
Emergency construction of toilet blocks
"I respect all ways of life. But this is unacceptable and dangerous! All this in the perimeter of the Dampierre-en-Burly nuclear power plant, "insists the mayor of Nevoy, who fears overflows. "An 82-year-old pensioner, who is never talked about, ended up in police custody for firing a warning shot in the air with his rifle. I obviously do not approve of his action. But he was scared because he saw people in the middle of the night on his property," he said.
The spokesperson for Vie et Lumière, Joseph Charpentier wants to be much more reassuring: "I understand very well that a gathering of 40,000 people can create apprehensions. There have been incidents, but nothing serious. The mayor is worried about nothing," he says.
About wild droppings, he adds: "We have installed a hundred toilets on the ground. And we are going to build toilet blocks from today. I have a team of several people who come to clean up within the hour on demand when land is soiled," he adds.
The prefecture specifies that 250 gendarmes are mobilized day and night on the site. They carried out nearly 4,000 vehicle checks, recorded nearly 200 traffic offences and issued 56 waste abandonment reports.
The gathering, which officially began on the weekend of May 6, is scheduled to end on May 14, after the baptism ceremonies.