PARIS (Reuters) – Paris will not be ready for the Olympics and Paralympics in terms of transport and sheltering the homeless, city mayor Anne Hidalgo has said.
“There will be places where (public) transport will not be ready because there will not be enough trains and not frequently enough,” Hidalgo told news show Quotidien in thinly veiled criticism of Paris region president Valerie Pecresse.
The Ile de France (Paris region) Regional Council, led by right-winger Pecresse, is in charge of transports in the region.
Hidalgo said the government was also, “a little bit” responsible for the situation, adding: “But we do this all together so I’m also concerned”.
Socialist Hidalgo said the RER (regional express train) station at Porte Maillot in western Paris would not be ready for the July 26-Aug 11 Games.
However, Pecresse wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter: “We will be ready. It’s a huge collective effort that shouldn’t be denigrated by an absent mayor”.
Hidalgo added that the situation of the homeless in the capital was another major issue.
“I don’t want to take them out and hide them (during the Olympics). There should be a social legacy,” Hidalgo said.
“We want to set up housing where they could be as soon as this winter and we’re dealing with it with the regional authorities and the state and we all agree that we have to move forward – but we are not ready.”
(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word in the headline)
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris)
