Crack in Paris: from the gardens of Eole, Anne Hidalgo “calls” on Gérald Darmanin – franceinfo

The socialist mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo went on Tuesday, September 21 in front of the Eole gardens, the point of attachment of crack users in Paris, to ask the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to put an end to “a large open-air crack market “, she told AFP.

“This situation has lasted too long”, explained the presidential candidate when arriving rue Riquet, in the 19th arrondissement, where there were more than a hundred drug addicts. The latter have acquired the habit of consuming there since, in mid-May, the prefecture and town hall agreed to group them together in the northern part of the Eole gardens in order to relieve the neighboring district of Stalingrad.

At the end of June, Anne Hidalgo had decided to put an end to this temporary situation by prohibiting crack users from entering the park, so that the inhabitants regain possession of it. “It had a perverse effect which is to bring them together outside”, recognized Anne Hidalgo, but “Leaving a large open-air crack market with the full tolerance of the law enforcement authorities is not acceptable”, she added for the prefect of police Didier Lallement.

At midday, the prefecture responded to repeated criticism from the mayor. “The sector of Stalingrad and Aeolus continues more than ever to be the object of a very sustained police action”, she said in a press release. Some residents spoke with the mayor, others questioning her in a more hostile manner. Anne Hidalgo refuses the prefecture’s proposal to evacuate crack users from Porte de La Villette, favoring a “sustainable solution” which consists for it in the multiplication of small reception structures.