The scenes of misery and degradation, so common in the Parisian region, must not take the shine off the Olympic Games, which will be inaugurated exactly one hundred days from now. The operations of eviction and expulsion of the homeless, whether they are French citizens or foreigners in an irregular situation, are accelerating in the French capital despite the criticism of the humanitarian organizations, which denounce a real “social cleansing”.
The last large-scale action to wash the face very quickly in Paris took place yesterday in the town of Vitry-sur-Seine, in the Vall del Marne department, on the southern outskirts of the metropolis. The prefecture mobilized 250 police officers to evict the remaining homeless from a disused former factory, described as the largest illegally occupied structure in France. Some 450 people are believed to have found refuge there in recent years, some of whom left before the operation after learning they would be forcibly evicted.
The same pattern is repeated in recent months. The associations that deal with helping the homeless have already counted more than thirty operations in one year. One of these operations took place in an old cement factory on the island of Saint-Denis, very close to the Olympic village, where around 500 people were living illegally. Those affected are a very wide range of people, including homeless French people, non-EU migrants, with or without residence permits and refugees, to sex workers who work on the streets. Some of these people even work, although their low income or their social profile prevents them from renting a home.
“The undesirables”, recently headlined the cover of the Libération magazine, which devoted four pages to the problem. The newspaper lamented the attempt to “sanitize” the city before the summer. Le Monde also gave extensive coverage to the phenomenon, although it recalled that it is a common sin of its Olympics, and mentioned precedents such as Vancouver or Atlanta.
Paris has an endemic problem of marginality and drugs, especially trafficking and consumption of crack, the cocaine of the poor. The City Council and the Ministry of the Interior, powerless, have often limited themselves to moving people from one neighborhood to another, to dismantling camps to tolerate their resurgence in other areas. This time, in view of the Olympic Games, the trips have been greater, to other cities, many times without the approval of the authorities and without the necessary coordination or help.
The concealment of poverty does not prevent Paris, so close to the Games, from offering other shortcomings unbecoming of the capital of a developed country and member of the G-7. It is enough to drive on the peripheral highway or other roads to see that there are many sections in poor condition, poorly signposted and lit – including tunnels -, in addition to an infinite number of barriers due to bogged down works and abundant garbage.
However, the real headache is not the picture of misery but the terrorist threat. President Macron admitted a few days ago, for the first time openly, that the ambitious opening ceremony, with a parade of delegations of athletes in boats on the Seine, could be replaced by an alternative ceremony in the Trocadéro area or in the ‘olympic stadium Then it transpired that, in reality, there is no well-prepared plan B and that, in this case, the lavish river parade will be replaced by a very minimalistic and almost improvised ceremony.
