A surprise announcement. Questioned in the National Assembly by a Horizontes deputy who denounces “an immense exasperation of the mayors” over the illegal occupations of communal lands by travelers, Bruno Retailleau announced that he was planning “new measures.”
The Minister of the Interior thus announces that he wants to launch “an action plan” that will include “property investigations and damage repairs” in the event of attacks on public or private property.
Before launching: “the issue of travelers is at the center of the concerns of all elected officials in France and, in particular, of mayors. Not a single day has passed since I took office without finding out about it.”
Insufficient reception areas
There french law Today it forces municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants to build reception areas. They typically hold about fifteen caravans. But the legislation is not always respected.
The State had set the objective of 1,864 urbanized areas and 43,000 places when the law was created in 1990. The last report published in this regard by the Court of Auditors in 2017 puts the figure of 26,000 places available, far from the necessary needs.
The magistrates also regret that the areas intended to temporarily accommodate travelers become “permanently occupied.” Among the reasons cited by the Court of Auditors: the schooling of children, the lack of guarantee of finding a place elsewhere and precariousness.
The paradoxical consequence of this situation is that, although almost 70% of the spaces planned for the reception areas have already been completed, only between 55 and 60% of them are actually occupied, although illegal parking also persists.
“Everyone can have the lifestyle they want as long as they respect the laws”
Enough to create strong tensions in certain municipalities, as happened this summer in Lomme, in the metropolis of Lille or even in the Alpes de Haute Provence.
Deputy Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (connected with Horizons), who interviewed Bruno Retailleau, cites several cases in her department of areas illegally occupied by travelers.
A “leisure area” in Saint-Julien-lès-Metz, which causes “significant damage to merchants”, the case of a football field in a neighboring town for a “damage amount of 30,000 euros”…
“In the Republic, everyone can have the way of life they want, according to their traditions, as long as they respect the laws of the Republic and respect those in charge of public power,” judges the Minister of the Interior again.
“It becomes a reason for exasperation when our fellow citizens illegally see public or private land with direct connection to the water and electricity networks and we can no longer stay like this,” continues the former president of LR.
Return power to mayors
Among the “action plan” mentioned by the Minister of the Interior, there is in particular the adoption of a Senate bill on the matter that wants, in particular, to grant much greater powers to mayors.
Powers that allow them, in particular, to appeal to the prefect to “carry out the forced evacuation of mobile homes” in the event that a “formal notification” is not respected. Bruno Retailleau promises, however, “a direct dialogue with the traveling community.”
Source: BFM TV
