Zoé Pallier, edited by Gauthier Delomez 9:43 p.m., February 16, 2022

As a parliamentary report indicates, the mayor of Paris wants to invoice the occupation of the space to the public establishment in charge of the renovation of the Notre-Dame-de-Paris cathedral.

The City is asking the company for a total of more than 20 million euros, a sum that would be taken from donations.

An LR deputy calls on the town hall not to apply this fee.

A revelation that makes deputies jump.

A parliamentary report indicates that the town hall of Paris is claiming a fee from the Notre-Dame-de-Paris site.

The work does indeed take up space and the City intends to charge for this occupation of public space.

In all, it is claiming more than 20 million euros from the public establishment responsible for the renovation.

However, this sum would be taken from the donations which are intended for the reconstruction of the cathedral.

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The mayor of Paris requires a fee of 3.4 million euros per year, for a project financed exclusively by the generosity of French and foreign donors.

In total, more than 830 million euros in pledges will therefore be partly diverted, denounces Brigitte Kuster, deputy of the Republicans and president of the information mission on the restoration of the cathedral.

"The public establishment is not intended, with donor money, to pay the city of Paris or to pay a tax to the city", she believes at the microphone of Europe 1.

"The town hall of Paris can make an exception", asks an LR deputy

MP LR continues: "These donations were made for the restoration following the fire. You can imagine when the donors will learn that it will be used to pay a right-of-way tax on the public road, while the City of Paris can completely exempt the public establishment from paying this tax?

According to Brigitte Kuster, Anne Hidalgo's teams can "make an exception, as other communities have done in France during works, after church or cathedral fires to make a gesture."

However, the mayor of Paris insists that it only respects the common law which applies to all construction sites, public or private.

MEPs therefore asked the Court of Auditors to give an opinion on the subject.