Anne Hidalgo has announced that the Olympic rings installed on the Eiffel Tower will remain on the monument after the end of the Paralympics. A decision that divides and does not please the descendants of Gustave Eiffel.
A divisive idea. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, announced in an interview with Ouest-France that the Olympic rings installed on the Eiffel Tower for the Olympic Games will remain on the monument. But this decision does not seem to convince most people, especially the descendants of Gustave Eiffel.
“The Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of Paris and France, has a broader vocation than just being permanently associated with an organization like the Olympic Games,” explains Savin Yeatman-Eiffel, vice-president of the association of descendants of Gustave Eiffel to BFMTV.
This heir of the engineer recalls in particular that the facade of the tower is regularly “used to highlight great causes”. He fears that by “definitively associating the tower with a particular image”, this will no longer be possible.
A petition launched
The decision to keep the Olympic rings was announced Saturday by the mayor of Paris. “As mayor of Paris, the decision is mine and I have the agreement of the IOC. So yes, they will remain on the Eiffel Tower,” the elected official told our colleagues.
The mayor justifies his decision to permanently alter the appearance of the emblem of his city, and of France, by the fact that “it is a very beautiful idea to combine the Eiffel Tower, a monument designed to be ephemeral for a universal exhibition, with the Games, an ephemeral moment which will also have marked Paris and our country”.
But Parisians and tourists do not share Anne Hidalgo’s opinion. “For one year, it may be a good idea, but not forever,” one local resident told BFMTV. While another added: “I think it should remain part of the Olympic Games.”
An online petition has been launched to oppose the decision, and has been signed by more than 1,900 people as of Monday, September 2.
