"The City of Paris will not participate in any way in any new operation which would only shift the problem without seeking to resolve it in an effective and lasting way", writes the socialist candidate for the presidential election.

This letter sent on Monday responds to the one sent the same day by the prefect of police Didier Lallement in which he affirms that the presence of drug addicts at Porte de La Villette "cannot be intended to be permanent" and asks if the City has any proposals to make to find "a land that is not part of the public space and on which these people could be established".

"Located in Paris", this new site must "be clearly far from any residential area" and be able to benefit from "reinforced social and medical support" to which the prefect asks the City to contribute.

At the end of September, Mr. Lallement had decided to move drug addicts from the gardens of Eole, where they had been gathered since the spring to relieve the neighboring district of Stalingrad, towards the gate of La Vilette.

“Drug users need comprehensive, social and health care to which the succession of police operations does not respond in any way,” Mrs. Hidalgo replies dryly to the prefect.

Between 2019 and 2022, the City and the State mobilized for their anti-crack plan 25 million euros instead of the nine million initially planned.

This money has mainly made it possible to accommodate 450 drug addicts, without providing a lasting solution to their wandering in the streets of the northeast of the capital.

In mid-September, the situation seemed to be unblocked with the letter from Prime Minister Jean Castex announcing the government's support for the creation of new places "of reception and rest" in the capital, a solution advocated by Ms. Hidalgo.

But, faced with the mobilization of local residents, the town hall announced the abandonment of a project for a reception area located near a school.

No proposals have emerged since.

"For almost five months, I have not had any information on these alternative solutions that you seem to be promoting", notes the prefect.

"The existence of an open crack scene, the continuity of which you assume", replies Ms. Hidalgo, "causes an incomprehensible rejection on the part of local residents and disqualifies the installation of appropriate care and support facilities" .

© 2022 AFP