The Paris theater, the Gaîté Lyrique, which made international headlines for being taken over by hundreds of migrants is still occupied by approximately 446 of them. It has launched a new “call for help” in a press release “in the face of this occupation that is ongoing and an unworthy human situation.”
The press release describes “increasing violence in severity and frequency” inside the space due to the occupants who have been squatting for four months. On Feb. 26, the cultural space announced it was no longer able to ensure the management, maintenance, and operation of the building.”
The space has been occupied since Dec. 10, after it hosted an event entitled ‘Reinventing the welcome for refugees in France,’ which included academics, Red Cross officials, and activists. However, the theater also invited refugees into the building to attend the event for free. They have basically never left, and in fact, the group of refugees inside the theater has nearly doubled over the months of the occupation.
The venue is unable to hold events but has also suffered hundreds of thousands of euros of losses and may face bankruptcy, management has warned. Videos of the occupation have been shared widely on social media.
Demonstration of undocumented immigrants at the Gaité Lyrique. pic.twitter.com/ZpxVPHIw81
— TacticalEdge (@EdgeE50124) January 14, 2025Management, which says it is not opposed to the occupation, also says there have been “fire alerts” and a “breakout of fire in occupied spaces.” Five days ago, the fire department needed to arrive on the scene. Employees, instead of partaking in cultural events such as theater, have turned to providing 24-hour patrols. Due to the situation, they are not withdrawing from the space, as the situation “constitutes a serious and imminent danger to them.”
Due to the occupation, the management of the venue, SAS Gaîté Lyrique, has informed the City of Paris that it desires to “suspend the concession contract that binds it to the latter, as of Friday, Feb. 28.” If the authorities do not intervene, the company along with its employees, “will be forced to leave the building and suspend the execution of [all] service provider contracts (fire safety, hygiene, cleanliness, etc.).”
There are signs that a police eviction may still occur. On Feb. 13, a judge ordered an eviction of the occupants within a month. It appears that while the staff of the theater are saying they support the occupation, but appears they also want an eviction, with the caveat that everyone inside needs to be provided with shelter elsewhere.
According to French newspaper Le Parisien, the management calls for authorities “to preserve the Gaîté Lyrique and save an open, fertile and supportive place” and noted operations will continue “as soon as the competent authorities have provided shelter for the occupants.”
It remains unclear if the police will intervene or what will happen with the theater, but social media users are using the case to highlight the country’s ongoing immigration crisis.
One French user wrote: “The episode at the Gaîté Lyrique is truly a perfect symbol of the demolition enterprise that mass immigration constitutes in Europe.”
- A theatre (collective equipment, result of centuries of cultural development)
- A completely left-wing program (cultural hegemony, universalism out of touch, moralizing humanism)
- 400 Africans who disembark (Great Replacement)
- Employees who welcome them in the name of their “values” (Western naivety, suicidal empathy)
- Increase in violence (savagery) and destruction of property through improper use, such as indoor fires (third-worldization)
- Closure of the theatre (immigration which destroys pre-existing cultural habits, impoverishment of collective life, impossibility of perpetuating activities which require a certain social functioning)
- Result: one less public facility, employees have left (withdrawal into the private and community sphere, disappearance of pre-existing populations)
“This is a caricature. It looks like it was written by a right-wing troll,” the user added.
