28 December 2008 - 16H15
Homeless protestors occupy Paris luxury hotel
Dozens of protestors, mainly homeless women and children, staged a brief demonstration in the entrance hall of the prestigious Intercontinental Paris-Le Grand hotel, demanding better low cost housing. They were evacuated by the police.
AFP - Several dozen protesters, mainly women and children, briefly occupied the entrance patio of one of France's most famous and prestigious hotels on Friday to demand better low-cost housing.
Around 50 police moved in and removed the group, many of them African immigrants, after they moved into the Intercontinental Paris-Le Grand on Place de l'Opera in the heart of Paris' main shopping and tourist district.
"We are demanding a meeting at the prime minister's office, and for the time being we're warming ourselves up in this prestigious establishment," protest spokesman Jean-Baptiste Eyraud told AFP by telephone before police moved in.
The protesters were drawn from a group that has set up a squatter camp in an office block overlooking the former Stock Exchange building in Paris' business district a short walk away from from the hotel.
Their group, Right to Accommodation, is campaigning for homeless and poorly housed families to be provided with long-term low-cost housing by the French state, and has been fined in the past for camping on public thoroughfares.
Friday's protest was carried out and broken up without violence.
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