By Nikos Tsinakis
The saying goes: You reap what you sow.
Residents of an elite liberal upmarket area in Paris city are complaining about “unwanted neighbors” as the city’s communist councilors seek to turn a public park into a refugee shelter. The new refugee shelter is planned to be built in the outskirts of Bois De Boulogne park, the second largest park in Paris, located next to the city’s elite 16th district, which currently hosts the French Open 2018 tennis tournament.
The idea was presented a few years back by communist party councilors and has previously been rejected on grounds of the planned site would be too far away from any public transportation; Jean-Noël Aqua, a Communist adviser, said: “It would be nice if the whole territory, including the west of Paris, contributes to the effort of welcoming migrant people.”
Despite this plan has been placed on the drawing board since 2015, it is now finally coming to fruition, it is not a coincidence that the current refugee settlements in the city are expanding rapidly due to the increase in the “migrant” population, with as many as 550 refugees currently arriving in Paris each week. Such a high number of newly arrived Africans and Middle easterners settling in the city have created an interesting sight- refugee tent camps spiraling out of control. Last week, the Grande Paris Run was even canceled due to a major migrant camp had been established on the route the race was supposed to run through. It becomes obvious that the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo herself must take actions towards land acquisition to ‘de-escalate’ the situation.
Looks like the Mayor of Paris and socialist party member Anne Hidalgo is playing catch up with Sadiq Khan in a race to see who can destroy their formerly prosperous city first.
