Paris (AFP)

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 where it now deserves 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.

The government is therefore launching an information campaign on Friday, with a dedicated number (0.806.706.806) and a site (). 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 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.

Mr. Griveaux had given the subject a personal tour by telling the newspaper 20 minutes about an infestation that had struck his own family. "It's a nightmare," he said. "We have to talk about it so that people are not ashamed to say it. When I spoke about it the first time at a dinner party, suddenly the word went free."

- "Skepticism" and "mockery" -

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".

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 any more," 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.

"We have been committed to this plan for many months and it is not the municipal authorities that are forcing us to deal with the issue", assures Mr. Denormandie’s office, whose political action in fact revolves a lot around the rehabilitation of existing housing.

The cabinet explains on the other hand that "the personal experience" of the minister, struck like Mr. Griveaux by cases of infestation, played in his approach and made him aware of a mental "gap" (gap) between the individuals faced with bedbugs and others.

"This is a subject close to the minister's heart," said the cabinet.

© 2020 AFP