Paris (AFP)

"Save the Darblay Chapel!": A hundred demonstrators gathered on Wednesday at the foot of the headquarters of the Ministry of the Economy in Paris to demand state aid against the relocation of a paper recycling center located in the suburbs of Rouen, AFP noted.

Smoke, banners, about twenty wooden mannequins with safety vests and "SOS" signs launched in the Seine, unions (CGT, FSU, Solidaires) and associations (Greenpeace, Attac) united in the collective "More never it!" called early Thursday morning for an "action of disobedience" to have the ear of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.

"We have a factory which (...) combines industry and ecology with competent employees and we have an owner who refuses to sell, even though there are buyers. And a State which tells us: + if the owner does not don't want to sell, what do you want me to do? +. So what is required of Bercy, of M. Le Maire, (...) is that they say in writing + yes we undertakes to reopen the site as soon as possible + ", added CGT General Secretary Philippe Martinez.

The last paper recycling site in France, the Darblay Chapel, where 228 people were made redundant in 2020, represents a "symbol of social and solidarity economy" according to Greenpeace.

"There are enough fine words on ecological and social transition. If this government wants to be credible, let it start by saving this factory at Chapelle Darblay", Attac spokeswoman told AFP, Aurélie Found.

"We are now expecting a concrete and firm commitment (from Bercy). As long as we do not have this commitment, we will stay there," she added.

"We must be attentive to the takeover of the industrial site, we want Bruno Le Maire to get involved, he is able to influence the choice of the buyer", told AFP the general manager of Oxfam France, Cécile Duflot .

After almost four hours of presence, Greenpeace France regretted in a tweet that the ministers Bruno Le Maire and the Minister for Industry, Agnès Panier-Runacher, "refuse" to receive them.

"My door is open to trade unions. I regret that the hand extended this morning was refused", replied a little later on Twitter Ms. Pannier-Runacher.

Without a buyer since it was put on sale in 2019 by the Finnish group UPM, the Chapelle Darblay factory in Grand-Couronne (Seine-Maritime) is kept in working order until June 15, when the machines will be sent to a new site in South America, according to the collective "Never again!".

The collective was born in March 2020 with the publication of a column signed in particular by Les Amis de la Terre, Attac, the CGT, the Confédération paysanne, the FSU, Greenpeace, Oxfam, the Union Syndicale Solidaires, with the objective of "to rebuild together an ecological, feminist and social future" in the face of "neoliberal disorder".

A meeting of the local branches of the collective by videoconference is scheduled for May 28 and 29, according to the CGT.

© 2021 AFP