The campaign for the municipal elections has not yet started, but the various parties and candidates are already choosing their positions on the political offer chessboard for voters.
Eric Ciotti, on the other hand, is already looking towards 2017… the year in which the presidential and legislative elections will take place. In his sights: the strapontin of Minister of the Interior. So, it’s best to choose his battle horse right away and fully play the anti-Rom card, declaring that these people are Romanians or Bulgarians and must return home.
Freedom of movement? The presumption of innocence? Humanitarian duty? None of that matters; what counts is the profile of the inflexible and the image to the voters. Everyone has their path to success!
Statement by Eric Ciotti, President of the General Council 06
“Following the transfer of competences and the property of the Var River from the State to the Department by convention on March 15, 2013, I had initiated, on behalf of the General Council, a first expulsion procedure before the Nice Administrative Court on April 22nd. This was a referred proceeding aimed at obtaining the expulsion of various occupants without rights or titles present in the riverbed on the municipalities of Nice and Saint Laurent du Var. These occupations were prior to the transfer of domaniality.
By ordinance on May 7th, the administrative judge granted the request and ordered the occupants to leave before May 17, an expulsion that could be carried out with the help of the public force. This was requested from Mr. Prefect on May 17 and granted immediately, which allowed the liberation of the premises on May 21, 2013.
However, in recent days, it has been established that new occupations have been reconstructed on the same municipalities in more or less similar locations. The presence of about 70 people, adults and children, has been noted. At the initiative of the General Council, two bailiff reports have been drawn up to establish the reality of these occupations. On this basis, I will be invoking the administrative court in summary proceedings to request expulsion on October 25.
In any case, I wish for the Government to assume all its responsibilities by ordering these populations to leave the Var River, including, if necessary, by resorting to public force. It is unacceptable to let a lawless zone flourish in such a dangerous space as the riverbed, even less acceptable to allow this reconstruction.
Moreover, it is regrettable that, since the evacuation last May, the situation at the departmental level has not improved. I denounce once again the great naivety and laxity of the Government, which only exacerbate a national situation that has become intolerable.
While illegal camps continue to increase, deportations are continuously declining. Finally, instead of contemplating the upcoming entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen area, the Government should focus its European policy on the integration of the Roma in their own countries.
In this sense, I have submitted a parliamentary resolution asking France to oppose the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen area.”
President of the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes
