arm wrestling between Valérie Pécresse and Anne Hidalgo on the accessibility of public transport in Paris

It’s been a week since the Paralympic Games began and the standoff over the accessibility of public transport in Paris is intensifying between Valérie Pécresse and Anne Hidalgo.

If you think that this is only a Parisian thing, in reality many French people pass through the capital, take the metro, sometimes between two stations, in stations that look like the film The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulainand see long stairs, or spaces between the platform and the carriage. A small step sometimes makes all the difference, with insurmountable obstacles when you are disabled, but also when you are elderly, or pregnant. Hence this promise just before the start of the Paralympic Games, Monday August 26, by Valérie Pécresse of “A metro for all”. At the head of the Île-de-France region, she chairs Île-De-France Mobilités.

The figures are staggering: 20 years of work to make the 13 historic lines accessible, starting with the 6, the overhead line, which passes right in front of the Eiffel Tower. And above all, the bill: 20 billion euros that Valérie Pécresse wants to split into three, one part for her to the region, one for the State, and one for the city of Paris.

“No response from Hidalgo“, smiles a close friend of Valérie Pécresse.”We put her against the wall“. “Transport is a regional competence, retorts an ally of the mayor of ParisPécresse gives the bill to the neighbor to avoid paying it herself“. Response from Valérie Pécresse’s camp “All this is just a pretext, the city has no means of paying, perhaps because of the way it manages its finances“In short, nothing to calm relations between the two women, with the resigning Minister of Transport in the middle, who cannot commit to anything.

APF France Handicap invites all stakeholders around the table, Thursday September 5 in the morning: region, State and city of Paris, to sign a pact to avoid “that it is just an announcement effect“, according to a source within the association. According to her, Valérie Pécresse had made the same commitments during the last regional elections, without anything happening. According to information from franceinfo, the region will indeed be present, as well as a representative of the State, but no response from Anne Hidalgo.