a hashtag encourages people to defecate in the river on D-Day

JO PARIS 2024 – A nauseating smell emanates from social networks. If some have been ironic for some time about Anne Hidalgo’s promise to swim in the Seine before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the jokes seem to take a much more serious turn since the date of this event was announced. was made official by the mayor of Paris.

June 23 was in fact chosen (subject to weather conditions) for the “ diving » by Anne Hidalgo in the waters of the Seine. With the ambition to prove that its promise of a clean Seine before the Games is not just a pipe dream.

A dive which could also take place in the presence of Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez and regional prefect Marc Guillaume, also invited to take a dip. Just like the head of state Emmanuel Macron, whose team is not able to confirm his presence on June 23 at this stage.

It must be said that the stakes are high just a few weeks before the Olympics, where the river will be heavily involved. Particularly for the opening ceremony, but especially for the triathlon and marathon swimming events. With the risks and fears that this implies for the quality of the water and for the health of the high-level athletes who will compete in Olympic events there.

“#JechiedanslaSeineleJune23”

The announcement of this official date has in any case delighted many citizens. But not necessarily for the right reasons. The fault of a hashtag with a particularly flowery name: #JechiedanslaSeineleJune23.

A name that speaks for itself and which immediately reveals the intentions of these Internet users, divided between online games of jokes, mockery about the consequences of swimming in the Seine, or a possible desire to aggravate the situation to discredit it. the councilor’s desire to clean up the river’s waters in the long term.

Present mainly on present » on D-day. Some « trolls » not hesitating to ask particularly specific logistical questions to achieve their goals.

Thus, misappropriation of posters for Parisian cultural events and false warnings on the protection of biodiversity now abound online around this same dubious hashtag.

From the joke to the C8 TV set

The scatological register of these jokes coming from Internet users often opposed to Anne Hidalgo would at most have made us smile if they had stopped there. On the set of Do not touch My TV on C8 this Thursday, May 23, host Cyril Hanouna seized on the trend during a sequence devoted to Anne Hidalgo’s future dive.

Hilariously, the presenter first explains that this announcement “ leave a month for the water to become nickel “. Before adding: “ know that there are some who want to shit in the Seine on the 23rd “. Cyril Hanouna therefore mentions the creation of a “ collective », in front of an audience and an audience of hilarious columnists.

“ People are geniuses », he adds to thunderous applause and not hesitating to take to task the only columnist visibly less excited by these jokes. “ I love it, I find it very funny », Adds the star presenter of C8.

Except that by relaying and encouraging, even in a humorous tone, this idea, Cyril Hanouna above all offered a first-class media showcase to this hashtag which did not ask for so much.

Fecal contamination

A problematic positioning, given the heavy liabilities that the television presenter maintains with the mayor of Paris, never stingy in criticism against the elected representative of the Socialist Party. As a reminder, the Canal+ group channel was sentenced in May 2023 by Arcom to a fine of 300,000 euros, for having insulted Anne Hidalgo during a sequence where the TPMP presenter denounced a choice of the mayor of Paris concerning the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

“ I saw that Anne Hidalgo was not going to put up giant screens to watch the matches. But what hypocrisy! No kidding, what hypocrisy! She won’t shut up! No kidding,” the host, who was regularly singled out for his slip-ups on set, then got carried away.

Fantasy or reality, the consequences of this crude hashtag should not change much in the growing concern regarding the successful holding of the Olympic events in the Seine this summer.

Indeed, recent measurements carried out by the NGO Surfrider Foundation to analyze the water quality of the river (between September 2023 and March 2024) reveal that 13 of the 14 measurements carried out are “ above or even very much above” thresholds recommended for swimming. Worrying data that we owe mainly to the concentration of two bacteria, Escherichia coli and enterococci, indicators of fecal contamination in the waters of the Seine.

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