JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The French Republic is facing a crisis, and the cabinet is huddling tomorrow to come up with a national plan. The crisis is bedbugs – tiny blood-sucking insects that have been reported in the country’s hotels, trains and movie theaters. NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Just nine months ahead of the Paris Olympics, the bedbug has become a politically charged issue. Sightings are everywhere, it seems, even in the French parliament.
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MATHILDE PANOT: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Far-left firebrand Mathilde Panot brandished a vial of the tiny insects – punaise de lit, in French – as she verbally attacked the prime minister in a session this week.
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PANOT: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: “Bedbugs are a national health problem, and…
