Paris makes controversial Olympics decision
The mayor of Paris has caused an uproar amongst locals are announcing plans to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower indefinitely.
In an interview with Ouest-France, Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the iconic landmark will be keeping the Olympic symbol after the conclusion of the summer Games.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee]. So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she said.
The giant Olympic rings, measuring 29 meters wide and 15 meters high, were installed on the Eiffel Tower ahead of the Paris Olympics, which began on July 26th, and were set to be dismantled after the Paralympic Games draw to a close on September 8th.
However, Hidalgo is pushing to keep them in place permanently, albeit in a lighter version, replacing the current 30-tonne structure.
The plan has drawn mixed reactions from Parisians, with many slamming the idea and calling out the "defiling" of the iconic French landmark.
“It’s a historic monument, why defile it with rings? It was good for the Olympics, but now it’s over, we can move on. Maybe we should remove them and return the Eiffel Tower to how it was before,” one local told French publication France Bleu.
Descendant of the Eiffel Tower designer Gustave Eiffel even chimed in on the debate, as a family statement read, "It does not seem appropriate to us that the Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of Paris and the whole of France since its construction 135 years ago, has the symbol of an outside organisation added to it in a permanent way, whatever its prestige."
The SOS Paris group, which campaigns to protect Paris's landmarks and environment, added, "The Eiffel Tower has a history of 135 years and surpasses a sports and media event of 17 days," while the chairman of the association Friends of the Champs de Mars, the park around the Eiffel Tower, said the idea "needed to be the subject of a wider consultation".
However, some people were in favour of the rings remaining on the Eiffel Tower, as one local told the publication, “The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful, the rings add colour. It’s very nice to see it like this.”
Image credits: Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/Shutterstock Editorial