The third meeting organized on Monday January 15 by the Paris Police Prefecture with representatives of the Town Hall and second-hand booksellers was held in a fairly tense climate. The incomprehension seems to be going up a notch between the Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, and the booksellers he intends to dislodge from the banks of the Seine during the Paris Olympic Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11. For months, the prefect has been citing compelling security reasons to temporarily remove these green wagon boxes present on the banks of the Seine.
The meeting made it known that the removal of the boxes would be carried out over four nights, from July 14 to 17, and that their replacement would be carried out from July 29, still over four nights. But the main stumbling block remains: the Town Hall and the Prefecture do not plan to compensate these book and souvenir sellers, who will not be able to sell anything for at least a fortnight.
According to Jérôme Callais, president of the cultural association of Paris second-hand booksellers, Laurent Nuñez indicated that he refused to sign a decree which would impose the closure of second-hand booksellers – the only way for them to obtain financial compensation. From then on, Jérôme Callais and the association’s lawyer, Me Matthieu Chirez, partner at the firm JP Karsenty & Associés, plans to bring the case before the administrative court.
” Bad news “
The representative of the second-hand booksellers assures that the Prefect would have warned them thus: “If you do not launch legal proceedings against us, we will only require the assembly and dismantling of 428 boxes out of the 932. That is 47% of them. But, otherwise, 604 boxes will be affected. » An argument to say the least “unpleasant”, sneered Mr. Callais. For its part, the Police Prefecture gives a completely different version, ensuring that it has “agreed to sacrifice certain areas which will therefore not be open to the public (…) which allows you to save more than 170 boxes. There are therefore 428 boxes which will have to be withdrawn and then deposited within a reasonable period of time, to which the city has been able to commit. Two versions contradictory enough to show the extent of the gap.
Pierre Rabadan, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Seine, did not wish to make a statement at the end of this meeting. “We heard some more bad newsdeclared Mr. Callais. All other second-hand bookstores will also be impacted. If their boxes stay in place, they won’t be able to work “, he clarified.
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