Emmanuel Grégoire responded Tuesday morning to criticism on the level of cleanliness of the streets of the capital.
For the first deputy mayor of Paris, "we must give more power to the municipalities to be able to increase the fines to sanction these incivilities much harsher", he claimed.
The mayor of Paris, attacked for several days on social networks for the cleanliness of the streets of the capital, on Tuesday called for "more sanctions" against the perpetrators of incivility.
"We must give more power to the municipalities to be able to increase the fines to sanction this incivility much harsher", demanded on RTL the deputy mayor PS Anne Hidalgo, potential candidate of the left for the presidential election.
"Repression is not the only weapon we need, but it is extremely useful for the most criminal behavior."
Grégoire emphasizes education
"It is also through education and the organization of the public service that we are trying to improve the situation," added the elected Socialist, according to which "cleanliness has always been a problem in Paris".
"This has always been the situation of a city which is dense, in which there are a lot of inhabitants and on which we are mobilizing exceptional resources, in particular in the Covid context (which causes) a lot of disruption in the functioning of the City, including that of public services, "explained Emmanuel Grégoire.
The debate on the cleanliness of Paris has been relaunched in recent days via social networks where many photos, posted under the hashtag #saccageparis, have notably made the right react.
"If every day you take a photo of what is the worst part of your daily life, it is not a reality of your daily life", defended Emmanuel Grégoire, denouncing a "political attack".
2,500 agents mobilized
The EELV deputy for the transformation of public space, David Belliard, echoed him by denouncing on RFI a "very instrumentalized campaign", while also recognizing "a certain number of cleanliness problems" which were "accentuated with the health crisis ".
The elected ecologist said he was "shocked at the way in which elected officials, and in particular right-wing elected officials, took advantage of this campaign to further denigrate the work" of Parisian cleaners.
In its response to the controversy, the City specified that "2,500 agents intervene every day" and "throughout Paris", but that the workforce was "currently reduced by 10% due to the spread of Covid-19", this which "may cause processing delays".