Mairie kept files on homeless

PRIME Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has come under pressure after it was revealed that while he was mayor of Nantes secret illegal files were kept on homeless people – including details of their sexuality, drug and drink habits and other private details.

The files were published in Le Point magazine and Nantes UMP councillor Julien Bainvel asked if files were now being kept on more and more people now that Ayrault was prime minister.

It also brought immediate alarm from people protesting about the planned airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, who feared files were also being kept on them as the project was backed by Ayrault.

The files date from 2006 and contain 129 names of homeless people with their appearance, sexuality, consumption of drink or drugs – down to the tiniest details of their way of life, whether they were in a couple, if they got benefits, previous convictions...

Le Point said the files appeared to have been kept in association with a move in Nantes at the time to move homeless people out of the city centre, after a ban on open-air drinking in 2004.

Councillor Bainvel said Ayrault’s opponents were used to these tactics and said that in 2008 the then mayor had written Parti Socialiste militants asking for information on “well-known opponents”.

Nantes mairie said that the files had been kept by one individual and that officials had halted the practice when it was discovered. They had called in the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés data watchdog to help supervise their destruction.
Jean-Marc Ayrault - Photo: Manuel