Why have hundreds of protesters taken over Paris theater?

CGTN Europe

Hundreds of young homeless migrants have been occupying La Gaîté Lyrique theater in the French capital since mid-December. There is a big standoff with the authorities and the theater is losing money. What is going on and is there a solution? CGTN’s Giles Gibson reports.  #theater #paris #france

Transcript

00:00La Guette Lyrique is an iconic venue here in central Paris, normally hosting concerts

00:05and other types of events, as well as serving as a community centre for this local area.

00:10But now it's becoming the centre of what's really becoming an increasingly tense standoff.

00:15Now the Belleville Park Youth Collective, which is the organisation that's organised

00:19this occupation, is also holding regular protests about twice a week, demanding those activists

00:25that the local authorities provide some long-term accommodation for the young people who are

00:31currently sleeping inside that building behind me every night.

00:35All of this started back on the 10th of December when about 200 people moved into the building,

00:40occupied it, and started sleeping inside every night, and more than six weeks later that

00:46number has risen to about 350 people.

00:49Now the initial reaction from the venue was to negotiate with the collective, rather than

00:54trying to have the people inside removed by the authorities by force, and as a result

01:00they've had to cancel lots of events, they've had to move lots of events to different venues,

01:05and that lost revenue is meaning that they are coming under increasing financial pressure.

01:10What's also making this situation, this standoff, drag on is that the city government and the

01:15national government are just really at odds about how to actually respond to this situation.

01:20So the local government, the city government has said that they regret the occupation,

01:24but they're also calling on the national government to actually requisition empty buildings, like

01:29hotels or empty public buildings, so that the young people sleeping inside the theatre

01:35can have somewhere to stay in the medium or even in the long term.

01:39However, the interior ministry here in France, which since elections last year has really

01:44taken a much tougher line on immigration policy, has so far refused to wade into this dispute.

01:51Giles Gibson for CGTN, Paris.

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