Paris’ left-wing Mayor Anne Hidalgo has blamed the “far-right” for a trending hashtag among French-language social media users denouncing garbage and dirt in the streets of the French capital.
The Parisien mayor made her comments on a radio broadcast earlier this week claiming that the campaign was “very orchestrated” and noted that all of the accounts with larger followings mentioning the hashtag had “a lot of closeness to the far right.”
“It’s a pretty simple method of Trumpizing political life everywhere, including in France,” Mayor Hidalgo said, invoking former President of the United States Donald J. Trump, Le Point reports.
The “#saccageparis” hashtag, which translated to “trashed Paris”, has seen a surge of posts since the Easter holiday and was denounced by the Paris city government last week and labelled a “smear campaign.”
The posts under the hashtag show areas of the city filled with garbage and other debris but the Paris city government later claimed the pictures were taken before cleaning crews. However, the city did admit that the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has reduced the cleaning workforce by around ten per cent.
According to a report from newspaper Le Figaro, many locals are also fed up with the state of the streets in certain areas of the city.
The newspaper spoke to several locals in the area around the La Forche metro in northern Paris, such as a Peruvian named Gracy who told the newspaper, “I think Paris is poorly maintained and I find it hard to believe that there will be the Olympic Games in this city in three years.”
“Since September 2019, we have had [rubbish dumped] in front of our business. Our boss reported it to the appropriate services on several occasions, but nothing was done. It’s not pleasant for us or for the customers,” a local baker said.
“Hidalgo has put us in the shit, the streets are dirtier than before and, moreover, it is more difficult for motorists to access them,” local grocer Sitayeb said, and added, “Bike lanes have killed trade and neighbourhood life.”
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