“I've never seen this,” says a Canadian, astonished. Tourists want to see the Eiffel Tower from the impressive Trocadero Esplanade, but when they get off the metro they must first pass through a wall of plastic bags. In the center, the once-romantic alleys are filled with boxes and cardboard, sometimes with spoiled food.
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“I've never seen this in Canada,” says Omera, a Canadian tourist with dyed pink hair, just after taking a photo of the trash piled up in Saint-Michel, in the Latin Quarter. “This will make tourists flee!” she claims.
Martin Ruiz, an 18-year-old American, laments the smell: “It’s disgusting.”
“The smell is unpleasant when eating or walking around the city,” says Mexican tourist Ángeles Mosqueda, in front of the Paris Opera.
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The City of Light, which received around 34,5 million tourists in 2022 according to authorities, has to face the interruption of basic services caused by a population unhappy with the reform that will affect the population's retirement, proposed by the liberal president, Emmanuel Macron, and rejected by two out of three French people.
To force the government to back down, unions intensified their actions last week after organizing large demonstrations in January and February.
The reason for the strike
Nabil Latreche, 44, denounces the fact that he has to work longer, despite having a “painful” job. “We work in rain, snow, or wind (…) When we are behind the truck, we breathe volatile things. We have a lot of occupational diseases,” he says.
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When I retire, “I know I will live poor” with a pension of no more than 1.200 euros ($1.280), laments Murielle Gaeremynck, a 56-year-old woman who has worked as a street sweeper for two decades.
Their colleagues from private companies, who operate in the rest of the capital, face, in turn, the blockade of incinerator plants. In total, 5.600 tons of trash accumulated in the streets on Monday, according to city hall, a volume that increases every day.
Among the critics, there are tourists who understand the cause: British Olivia Stevenson supports strikes “anywhere”, in France, or the recent ones that took over her country.
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The trash in Paris “disrupts the sight and smell”, but “retirement and salary are important for many people”, he explains.
“Obviously, it is not the best for foreign tourists”, recognizes the president of the Paris Tourism and Conventions Office, Jean-François Rial, but “it will not harm the image” of the city.
“Even two weeks without garbage collection did not harm Naples,” he recalls, insisting that the social conflict will not affect “the tourist frequency of this wonderful city.”
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(Source: AFP)
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