The Observer’s report on the French capital hit a nerve in the press and on social media – especially as an election looms

In Paris, the municipal election campaign has well and truly begun. If anyone still doubted it, they just had to note the reactions to the Observer’s article last weekend on the dirtiness of the French capital. Under a headline condemning Paris as “the dirty man of Europe”, Kim Willsher wrote how, despite the efforts of the city’s authorities to improve the cleanliness of streets, this is an issue that is causing considerable concern to Parisians. She quoted an American professor who has lived in the city for the best part of 30 years as saying that Paris was “filthy everywhere”. And even if the piece reminded us of the large amount city hall spends on cleaning the city – around €500m (£445m) a year – and noted its “grand schemes” to combat air pollution, it certainly touched a nerve.

Paris was no worse than any other major city, insisted some angry readers on social media. Le Parisien described it as a “vitriolic article”. The mayor, Anne Hidalgo, had to go on French radio to defend her record and said the same sort of article had been written about Rome and London. She couldn’t put a rubbish collector behind every Parisian, she declared.