French president Francois Hollande says “more decisions” may be required due to the “exceptional” flooding situation in Paris and other French regions.
Hollande spoke Friday at a press conference with visiting South-Korean president Park Geun-Hye. He didn’t elaborate on what new decisions he is considering should the Seine’s level keep rising.
Hollande said he has attended a meeting “so we can be vigilant regarding the rising water level, the peaks which might potentially involve more decisions.”
The French president said “what is happening now, especially in Paris and in some regions, is exceptional.”
French authorities have activated preliminary steps of a plan to transfer the French presidency, ministries and other sensitive sites to secure places should the swollen Seine River keep rising in Paris.
The Secretariat-General for National Defence and Security, or SGDSN, said Friday that French Prime minister Manuel Valls gave the green light earlier this week to set off the first stage of the “plan for the continuity of the government’s work” in case of major floods in Paris.
The SGDSN says the first steps involve checking and preparing the different sites chosen for housing government staff should floods threaten Parisian places of power.
It says the French presidency and the prime minister’s office are not immediately threatened by the floods because they are not on the Seine banks, but the National Assembly and the foreign ministry are at greater risk.
The office says that in its last stage, the plan would involve moving the French presidency from the Elysee Palace to the Chateau de Vincennes, a fortified castle just east of Paris. The National Assembly and the Senate would be transferred to the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris, and part of the prime minister’s office would be moved to Mont Valerien, a hilltop fortress just west of Paris.
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