Paris (AFP)

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire on Monday denied accusations by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who had said that Paris had not yet received any funding under the recovery plan.

"The presidential ambitions of Madame Hidalgo do not allow her to lie, to lie to the French," blasted Bruno Le Maire on France Inter.

"Regarding the recovery plan, we have not seen the color in Paris. Companies undoubtedly benefit through partial unemployment or tax cuts, but local communities, which carry 70% of public investment in France, have not received a euro, "said the mayor of Paris the day before in an interview with the Journal du dimanche.

"She saw about 1 billion euros", retorted the Minister of the Economy.

"We have put in 670 million euros for public transport in the Ile-de-France region, 238 million euros for the renovation of public buildings in Paris, 5 million euros for the cycle paths she talks about, 10 million for social housing ", he then listed.

The recovery plan of 100 billion euros over two years provides in particular tax cuts for companies (20 billion over two years), as well as investments in clean transport (train, bicycle, electric vehicles, etc.) as in the energy renovation of buildings.

For example, a program to renovate 4,000 public buildings for nearly 3 billion euros was launched at the end of 2020 and 60 projects have been identified in Paris, according to the scoreboard of the Ministry of the Economy.

But these buildings do not necessarily belong to the city of Paris.

© 2021 AFP