Saint-Etienne (AFP)
The LR mayor of Saint-Etienne Gaël Perdriau announced Thursday that he wanted his city to participate now in the reception of Afghans evacuated from Kabul, the capital of the country fallen into the hands of the Taliban.
If many environmentalist and socialist mayors have already announced their desire to welcome Afghan refugees, the declaration of the city councilor of the largest city led by an elected LR from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region appears more against the grain to right of the political spectrum.
"It is our human duty, it is my responsibility as a politician," told AFP the elected, who had already been one of the first elected Republicans to speak in favor of welcoming Syrian refugees to his city six years ago.
"The social landlords who had made six housing units available to accommodate 25 Syrians for periods of six to twelve months and those who had accompanied them have already almost all told me that they are ready to repeat the operation, in connection with the services of the State ", specified Gaël Perdriau, who also chairs the metropolis of Saint-Etienne.
"My humanist initiative of 2015, which had been greeted by outbursts of solidarity from some and insults from others, had not disturbed the large city of Saint-Etienne and its 175,000 inhabitants", he added. wanted to emphasize.
Asked about the willingness of the mayor (ex-LR) of Nice Christian Estrosi not to welcome people fleeing Afghanistan, Gaël Perdriau considers that "the amalgamation he makes between refugees and terrorists is unfortunate. I find it unfortunate. that it is awkward, to put it mildly ".
On Wednesday, the mayor of Nice had during an intervention on RTL mentioned the attack of July 14, 2016 to explain his position vis-à-vis the Afghan refugees.
© 2021 AFP