Paris (AFP)

The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo again demanded Wednesday the opening of parks and gardens in Paris, refused by the government, by proposing in particular a filtering of the entries to avoid overcrowding.

"I think it's a public health issue," pleaded the PS councilor on RMC-BFMTV, surprised that we can "take the metro but not walk in a park".

Tuesday, the Minister of Health Olivier Veran reiterated his refusal to consider a derogation for these green spaces in "Paris, in the Ile-de-France and in the other zones classified red".

"Of course, it must not be done haphazardly, I made proposals to the government yesterday and we are going to discuss," said the mayor of Paris.

"If you do not open the parks and gardens to the promenade, to do sports, to walk, not to picnic there, Parisians will be sent back to sidewalks or to spaces like the banks, the canal Saint Martin ", she argued, referring to the residents who had benefited Monday from the first evening of deconfinement along the canal by ignoring social distanciations.

For the mayor of Paris, maintaining sanitary safety distances requires space, but Paris, she recalls, is a very dense city with 20,000 inhabitants per m2.

"For parks and gardens, we can filter the entry of people and say at some point that the gauge is reached if there are too many people. And if we open the parks and gardens, I will impose the compulsory port mask through their regulations, which are municipal, "she said.

"I think it's reasonable," insisted the mayor of Paris, urging "not to infantilize people, to trust them by carrying this message: if there is more space, there will be less concentration in one place. "

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