PARIS – Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she wants to keep the Olympic rings attached to the Eiffel Tower. So that the “festive spirit” of successful games is kept alive Long after their conclusion.
His rivals, however, see an attempt to glue a campaign poster on one of the world’s most iconic monuments ahead of the next mayoral election in 2026, which would pit Hidalgo against outgoing culture minister and current mayor Rachida Dati. Arrondissement Where the Eiffel Tower is located.
David Alphand, a right-wing Parisian city councilor and Dati ally, said Hidalgo was “doing everything she can to recover the positive spinoff” of the Olympics.
“She has shown a great deal of political opportunism,” said Alfand. “The Eiffel Tower was not built to hang anything and everything on it.”
Paris 2024 sold the French public on hosting the Games Promising to make them the “greenest in history”. A promise to use pre-existing infrastructure largely for sustainability purposes and to keep costs from spiraling out of control. Many temporary venues were built in the center of the city, so iconic monuments like the Eiffel Tower became part of the backdrop for events like the opening ceremony or beach volleyball.
After the Games, those temporary structures are supposed to come down. Central Paris, for the most part, is supposed to return to what it was.
Hidalgo’s camp has so far faced criticism as typical complaints from Parisians, who are notorious for their disdain for any change in the French capital. IM Pei’s pyramids outside the Louvre were panned after their installation in the 1980s, and the tower built by engineer Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 World’s Fair was also initially opposed by architects and residents. Novelist Guy de Maupassant called it a “huge ungainly skeleton” and it is said that he liked to eat lunch there because it was the only place in Paris from which he could not see it.
Today, more than a century later, the Eiffel Tower is a beloved monument around the world synonymous with France—and one that many, including Eiffel’s descendants, would like to remain untouched.
“The rings completely break the design of the monument … it does not respect the work of our ancestor,” Olivier Berthelot-Eiffel, Gustave Eiffel’s great-grandson, told Politico. Berthelot-Eiffel heads the Association of Eiffel’s Descendants, which opposes Hidalgo’s move.
Decorating the Eiffel Tower is not a precedent. It has been used to convey political messages, viz Support for Ukraineand for commercial purposes – At least once by Citroën. But those installations have always been temporary.
This is the first time the Eiffel family has publicly taken a position against plans related to the Eiffel Tower, Berthelot-Eiffel said.
announced her plans in an interview with Oist FranceHidalgo said the decision is his to make, since the tower is owned by the city of Paris — as long as it is approved by the International Olympic Committee, which strictly guards where the rings are displayed.
Dati takes a diplomatic approach to fights, seemingly eager to let others attack. Shortly after Hidalgo’s announcement, the outgoing Minister of Culture Noted on X That the Eiffel Tower is a “protected monument” can only be renovated under certain conditions and after an impact assessment.
“Contrary to what she says, she is not the only decision-maker,” said Julien Lacaz, president of “Sites and Monuments”, France’s oldest heritage defense association.
Lacazé said the tower should remain a symbol of France and criticized Hidalgo’s proposal as a way to promote herself, hanging on the Eiffel Tower like a “parasite” so she could “take advantage of her fame … to say these are my games. “
Whatever the final decision, the current 30-ton Steel rings Have to come down because they are too heavy to stay there permanently. Hidalgo said the city plans to replace them with new, lighter ones.
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