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- The Eiffel Tower with the Olympic rings
Photo: Ibex73 (CC BY-SA 4.0) - See the image in its page
It’s exhausting. There are few months, or even weeks, when Anne Hidalgo doesn’t take a decision that is harmful to our heritage and to Paris. Without any real opposition from the State or the Ministry of Culture. In many cases - just think of Notre-Dame de Paris - they are even the ones behind the threats.
No one can ignore it now: it’s once again the Eiffel Tower that’s under threat from the City Hall. Not content with neglecting its upkeep (see articles) or with having supported and participated in the construction of the wall of shame (see article), dissatisfied with not having been able to further ruin its surroundings by building baggage stores (see article), finding it insufficient to regularly ravage the Champ-de-Mars by organising incessant events (see articles), it is now the very appearance of the monument that it is attacking, by declaring that it wants to make permanent the Olympic rings, the installation of which had obviously been authorised on a temporary basis and which were to be removed once the Paralympic Games were over.
Contrary to what we thought, the Olympic Games were, in the opinion of those who were in Paris at the time, a success. Hidalgo wants to make this success her own. But what the tourists and the few Parisians who stayed on during the event appreciated was exactly the opposite of the treatment the municipality has been giving the capital for years. Exceptionally clean (at least near the Olympic venues), secured by thousands of police officers, with transport that was finally up to scratch, the city was the exact opposite of the hell that its inhabitants go through on a daily basis. What foreign visitors appreciated was the eternal image of Paris, the one you see in American TV series and films, the Paris of Amélie Poulain and Haussmann. Not the Paris of Hidalgo. As for the organisation, its success obviously owes nothing to the weak arms of City Hall, who were incapable of carrying out the slightest work, but to the Préfecture de Police and the Olympic Committee.
As Hidalgo wants people to believe that she is behind the improbable but real success of these Games, it is hardly surprising that she wants to perpetuate their most visible symbol: the Olympic rings. And she asserts without the slightest hesitation that, with the IOC’s agreement, she would be the sole decision-maker. Madame 2.1% (the score achieved by the mayor in the presidential election in her own city) imagines that she has absolute power.
This is obviously not true. The Eiffel Tower may not be classified but it is a inscribed historic monument, and part of a World Heritage Site. While this latter status does not give it any legal protection, inscription at least gives it some. Article L621-27 of the French Heritage Code stipulates that work subject to planning permission "the decision granting permission [...] may not be carried out without the agreement of the administrative authority responsible for historic monuments". As the Eiffel Tower is a listed building, any work that alters its external appearance requires planning permission, which the Prefect, i.e. the State and the Ministry of Culture, can refuse. The latter, if it wanted to, could perfectly well prevent the municipality from carrying out its project.
But does the Ministry, and in this case Minister Rachida Dati, who has admittedly resigned, but whose mission of defending heritage is a matter of current affairs, want to do so? One wonders when one reads the tweet she published on the subject. After pointing out that the Eiffel Tower is a "protected monument", and specifying that the hanging of the rings had been granted "exceptionally", rather than asserting as she can - and as she should - that changing the appearance of the Eiffel Tower is out of the question, she simply asks that: "all procedures and consultations aimed at protecting heritage be respected". Let’s destroy our heritage, but do it properly! Once again, this is not serious.
Whatever her opinion, whatever the procedures and consultations, the permanent installation of these Olympic rings would be illegal in any case. After all, they are a private, registered trademark that no one can use without the IOC’s permission. Has the IOC given its consent? No matter. This logo is clearly an advertisement under article L581-3 of the Environment law. And the Heritage law formally prohibits advertising on historic monuments - except temporarily in the case of works and if the income is allocated to these works. While this ban was partially lifted by the Olympic law (see article), the exception will come to an end with the Paralympic Games. It will therefore be impossible to keep the Olympic Games logo on the Eiffel Tower.
What’s more, and this is perhaps the most absurd of all, there’s no question of keeping the current one, which is too heavy, but of redoing it - obviously at Parisians’ expense - to install new rings that will have nothing to do with the 2024 Olympic Games, but everything to do with Anne Hidalgo’s claim to make Paris disappear a little more.
Note that a petition has been launched - yet another - to oppose this project. We encourage all our readers to sign it. We had initially directed you to another petition, but it was poorly argued and anonymous (signed by "Paf le chien", sic). Better to sign the one by Baptiste Gianeselli, a well-known and recognised defender of Parisian heritage.