French riot police clashed with migrants and their supporters today as they cleared a Paris theatre occupied by hundreds of homeless Africans.
Violence broke out outside the Gaîté Lyrique – one of the French capital’s most historic arts venues – soon after dawn on Tuesday morning.
Mainly young men have moved in since last December when the management gave them free tickets to a ‘Refugees Welcome in France’ conference.
Performances were soon cancelled – losing the theatre thousands in revenue – as makeshift beds were placed around the stage and auditorium.
Until today there were 446 people living inside illegally, most of them claiming they are minors under the age of 18 who deserve permanent housing.
CRS (Republican Security Companies) officers gathered outside the theatre at 5am on Tuesday, and then moved in at 6am.
According to a local resident who witnessed the events, there were immediate confrontations with protesters who were vocally opposing their entry into the theater.
‘Police responded with tear gas and baton charges, and there were some injuries.’
Danièle Simonnet, a Left-wing Paris MP, attacked the ‘violent police intervention’ in a tweet published on X.
Authorities responsible for upholding law and order have promised to take action following complaints from theater management about what they described as ‘unacceptable misconduct’ inside the establishment that was contributing to a rise in violent incidents.
The theater management has decided to vacate the premises citing concerns regarding fire safety, security, hygiene, maintenance, and waste disposal.
In a statement, they warned of an ‘explosive and undignified situation’ that was ‘increasing in severity’.
Beyond fights breaking out because of sexual tensions, migrants have been seen dealing and using drugs.
Staff have been acting as ‘on-site security guards, even though this is neither their skill set nor their job,’ says the statement.
Despite this, the statement said staff have also been ‘welcoming and sheltering the occupants’.
The theatre is owned by the City of Paris, which is dominated by Socialists and Greens.
A judge at the Paris Administrative Court ordered the evacuation of the building on February 13, but the council initially refused to involved the police.
The migrants were being supported by political activists even more Left-wing than the theatre’s management.
Calling themselves the Collectif des Jeunes du Parc de Belleville – after a Parisian park – they view the occupation as being part of the ‘anti-racist and anti-colonial struggle’.
But local businesses complained of losses due to the occupation.
‘They are ruining my business,’ the manager Elia, herself the daughter of Algerian migrants, told The Times in December.
‘They hang around outside my terrace, smoking joints and fighting among themselves. Not only do we no longer get theatregoers because the theatre is shut but we don’t get passers-by either. They’re being frightened away by all these young men.’
The bistrot next to the 19th-century venue, a popular spot for theatregoers to eat and drink before and after shows, has reported €30,000 in lost revenue so far.
The 1800-seat building that houses the current Gaîté Lyrique was built in 1862 and became celebrated for staging operettas by Jacques Offenbach, the German-born French composer, in the 19th Century.
On November 1, France reinforced its borders with six of its neighbouring Schengen members – Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland – with increased checks.
The controls were applied to travellers entering France via land, sea and air routes from all six nations and will last until April 1, 2025 – but authorities have said they could be extended further.
A French government statement declared the checks were introduced due to ‘serious threats to public policy, public order, and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities… criminal networks facilitating irregular migration and smuggling, and migration flows that risk infiltration by radicalised individuals’.
