On the left, a rebellious member of parliament has erected the fight against bedbugs in combat. In the majority, a former candidate for mayor of Paris shared his painful experience. This scourge worries the political world to the point of now deserving a government plan: Julien Denormandie, Minister responsible for the City and Housing, launches a plan to prevent and fight against bedbugs, his ministry announced Thursday evening.
Bedbugs are insects whose bites cause itching, which develop in mattresses and sheets, as well as furniture and nooks. While they had practically been eradicated in France in the middle of the 20th century, the ministry noted an upsurge, based on figures reported by professionals in the extermination of parasites. According to them, 400,000 sites, including not only accommodation but also hotels, were treated in 2018, the last reference year, almost a third more than the previous year.
A number and an information site
The government therefore launched an information campaign on Friday, with a dedicated number (0.806.706.806) and a site (stop-punaises.gouv.fr). It also intends to ask professionals to structure themselves, with a label at the end, and plans to launch a mission soon to the National Assembly to study possible legislative developments.
If the subject of bedbugs is now mobilizing up to the government, it has been almost a year since it has emerged more widely in the political world. In early February, while he was still the presidential majority candidate for mayor of Paris, Benjamin Griveaux, since replaced by Agnès Buzyn, spoke out for a "municipal public service" against bedbugs.
The secrets of Benjamin Griveaux at 20 Minutes
The former candidate for mayor of Paris had given a personal tour to the subject by telling, with 20 Minutes, an infestation that had struck his own family. "It's a nightmare," he testified. “You have to talk about it so people aren't ashamed to say it. When I first talked about it at a dinner party, suddenly the word went free. ”
Before figures of the majority seized the subject, it was first the radical left opposition, among the Insubmissives, who made it a battle horse last year. In the summer of 2019, rebellious deputies asked to recognize bedbug infestations as a public health issue, demanding from the government a "national emergency eradication plan".
"At the time, reactions fluctuated between skepticism and mockery"
It is, more specifically, the deputy Mathilde Panot who carries the subject, to the point of participating herself in several door-to-door operations alongside associations, in particular in the Marseilles suburbs. "I had started talking about the scourge of bedbugs in the last presidential campaign," said the leader of the rebels, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in his blog in January. "At the time, reactions fluctuated between skepticism and mockery." "Now, no one wants to laugh anymore," he continued, referring to bedbugs as a phenomenon "reinforced by the economic and social model in which the populations concerned live".
The rebellious call in particular for a framework of prices for the intervention of professionals, and a ban on treatments with chemicals. The government does not exclude such measures but for the time being refrains from advancing, referring to the future parliamentary mission. By the way, he denied any political aim a few weeks before municipal elections which promise to be difficult for the majority.
A gap between individuals and politicians
"We have been committed to this plan for many months and it is not the municipalities that force us to deal with the issue," says the cabinet of Julien Denormandie, whose political action in fact revolves a lot around the rehabilitation of housing. existing.
The cabinet explains, however, that the minister's "personal experience", struck like Benjamin Griveaux by cases of infestation, played in his approach and made him aware of a mental "gap" between individuals faced with bedbugs and the like. "This is a subject that is close to the heart of the minister," summed up the cabinet.
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