Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, made good on a promise made a decade ago to swim in the Seine a week before the start ·of the Games. Because of pollution, the Seine has been banned from swimming for the past 100 years. In 2014, Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, proposed a plan to turn the Seine into a "safe place to swim." During his ten years in power, Hidalgo led Paris through many difficulties. Her colleagues described Hidalgo's aggressive approach as "an iron fist wrapped in velvet gloves." After the terrorist attacks, she offered to bid for the Olympics and reunite the city. "Parisians, France, will move forward with the support of the whole world." Ten years later, the Seine is "ready for tens of millions of spectators".
If Paris Mayor Anne · Hidalgo's reign were a TV series, its plot could be more twisty than many political dramas. During his 10 years as mayor, Hidalgo led the world-famous city through floods and heat waves, as well as strikes, the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks, the Notre Dame Cathedral fire and the pandemic. She describes managing Paris as "like driving a tiny catamaran in a squalling wind permanently": "Curiosity or administrative experience alone is not enough to run the city." You have to have broad shoulders to bear, you have to be brave. During his 10 years in power, Hidalgo has been pushing for Paris's transport, infrastructure and green energy reforms. In 2015, she proposed a €1.4 billion plan, vowing to turn the Seine into a "safe place to swim". A week before the Paris Olympics, Hidalgo made good on a promise he had made to the media and changed into a swimsuit to swim in the Seine. "[Swimming in the Seine] is a pure bliss." Hidalgo said to the media present. After her swimming, the France newspaper Le Monde commented: "Hidalgo has succeeded in taming the powerful natural elements and making the Seine a place to swim." She accomplished what her predecessors never achieved. Because she has never been a person who gives in without a fight. "No one has offered Hidalgo anything. Throughout her career, she has taken every step on her own. Before the Olympics began, the France edition of Vogue magazine used a French sentence to describe Hidalgo's 10 years at the helm of Paris – "Elle fonce", which means "she goes forward".
▲Hidalgo inspects the wastewater treatment plant.
"Velvet gloves wrapped in an iron fist" "In her political career, Hidalgo often declared war. Le Monde summed up Hidalgo's decade in power: "She declared war on traffic, reformed Paris's municipal roads, and tackled traffic jams; She declared war on Macron, criticizing him for putting the Paris government in debt; She declares war on pollution; She declared war on municipal opposition leaders; Declare war on anyone who disagrees with her. She even criticized Parisians who complained that the Olympics interfered with their daily lives. Her opponents called her "arrogant and apolitical." Time magazine argues that it was such a mayor that Hidalgo "did what her three predecessors — and all men — failed to do": bring the Olympics back to Paris and make the Seine a place where games could be held. In 2014, when then-France President François Hollande suggested that Paris rebid for the Olympics, Hidalgo's reaction was to "shout loudly: No! She had just taken office as mayor of Paris. It's no easy job. The mayor of Paris is responsible for managing 2 million inhabitants, a budget of 10 billion euros and 50,000 municipal workers. With an area of 155 square meters, the mayor's office is "larger than the presidential office at the Élysée Palace" and is the largest public office in France. Managing the city, coupled with the huge amount of work involved in the Olympic bid and hosting, Hidalgo believes that "this is not a good arrangement".
In January 2015, the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris changed Hidalgo's mind. It was the worst terrorist attack in four decades on France soil. Two militants broke into the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a political satirical magazine, killing 12 people. A few weeks after the incident, the aftermath of the terrorist attacks was felt in Paris. "When I picked up my phone that day, I found that there were 15 missed calls. I knew something had to happen. Hidalgo later recalled in an interview with the United Kingdom newspaper The Guardian, "Long after, when I talk about that day, I still cry." "I wonder what we can do and how we can create the conditions for unity and hope in Paris." Hidalgo told Le Monde and Time magazine, "The Charlie Hebdo incident convinced me that Paris should do something powerful, powerful and attractive to young people. We must reverse this. The Olympics are the best opportunity. In addition to uniting citizens through sporting events, she also wants to prove that she is doing better than her predecessor, Bertrand Delanoe, a ·politician who served as mayor of Paris for 14 years. The failure of Paris' bid during Delanoët's tenure was "a devastating blow to the city," prompting Hidalgo to hope that he would be the one to save the day.
▲Hidalgo in the mayor's office.
This may be a gender-related ambition that goes beyond mere gender considerations. Before becoming mayor of Paris, she held the position of deputy mayor for thirteen years. She said that being mayor of Paris was "the job of her life". Hidalgo, described by her family, as "a driven, unstoppable child from an early age – even when people assume that sexism is not a problem." Hidalgo was born in Spain in 1959, her grandfather fled to France during the Spain Civil War, and her father had no formal education and found a job as a worker in Lyon as an adult. Hidalgo's mother was a seamstress, and Hidalgo and his sister Marie grew up in Lyon, "living in a house without a bathroom or an elevator". She became a France citizen at the age of 14. Hidalgo later told the France newspaper Libération that his biggest dream as a teenager was to go to Paris: "I want to go to Paris, I want to see Sartre. She studied social law at the University of Lyon, where she met her first husband. After graduating, Hidalgo worked as a factory inspector "learning how to survive in an all-man environment." In the 1980s, she finally moved to Paris and joined the Socialist Party of France. Hidalgo met her current husband at work, and she divorced her first husband in 1995, with whom they have two children. In 2001, Hidalgo won the election for deputy mayor and became pregnant with her third child in the same year. This time she didn't have time for maternity leave and stayed up late the night before giving birth. "It's very difficult to juggle the work of the deputy mayor and the mother." Hidalgo told reporters that "fortunately, the government-subsidized nurseries helped a lot". She said her husband and children have learned to "never expect her to come home for dinner," that she "only cooks one dish and doesn't have time to cook," and that "she loves her job very much." "My wife is an enterprising woman." Jean-Marc Germain, Hidalgo's current ·husband, told Vogue magazine, "It's like riding a bicycle, if you don't pedal, you fall off." "There's not a day that goes by when I don't think about what a special job it is, and what a real difference and what a place to achieve." Hidalgo told the Guardian reporter. Hidalgo, described by her colleagues as "an iron fist wrapped in velvet gloves, and she will do things her way". The main task of Hidalgo's first term was to solve the problem of urban pollution. She proposed the concept of a "15-minute city" that would allow residents to solve their shopping, leisure and education problems within 15 minutes of their homes. According to the Financial Times, Paris is the second most congested city in Europe, behind only London. Hidalgo's "15-minute city" concept encourages people to walk and bike, effectively reducing traffic congestion, but it has also sparked criticism that it "does not fit in with the Parisians who like to drive through the city". She arranged for thousands of new saplings to be planted in the city and a new park to be built. She also drew criticism from many taxi drivers for converting the right bank of the Seine, a famous congestion spot, into a place for bicycles, walks and street performers, and pushing the city council to vote to ban petrol cars from 2030. When meeting Queen Elizabeth II as mayor of Paris, Hidalgo was told by the France Foreign Ministry not to wear trousers: "I wore a skirt, which is very unusual for me. When reporters asked her if she had curtsied to the Queen, Hidalgo laughed: "I'm a republican, I don't curtsy anyone." ”
▲In 2017, Paris successfully won the right to host the 2024 Olympic Games.
"I knew I was the first female mayor of Paris. But what I want is not to spend my time emphasizing that I am a woman. I have to keep fighting. Hidalgo told reporters. She openly responded to citizens who criticized the reform: "There are conservative people in Paris who are not interested in change because they live well. They have big houses in the city and big houses in the country, and they don't identify with the Parisian middle class. Of course, this attitude does not attract votes. Despite winning a second mayoral term, Hidalgo, who ran for the first time, won only 1.75% of the vote in the 2023 Senate reelection. Many media outlets attribute the failure to her image of "hard work, desperate, unslack, and lacking in charisma." But Hidalgo doesn't care. "Reform is not a lie. A city's creativity doesn't depend on how many vehicles are on the streets. "What people need is responsible politicians. I'm not going to play anybody. ”
The Seine is ready Hidalgo suggested that the Olympics would accelerate the city's transformation of the city, bringing about new reforms in areas such as public transport and pollution emissions. In order to reduce carbon emissions, there is no air conditioning in the Olympic Village, and the temperature in the rooms is reduced by water cooling. "Please believe in the science." Thanks to Hidalgo's Seine River Management Plan, athletes from the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics were able to enter the Seine by boat. For the first time in the history of the modern Olympic Games, athletes did not walk into the stadium as they used to.
▲Hidalgo and Tony Estanguet, Chairman of the Paris Olympic Games Organizing Committee, To·ny Estanguet.
"The Paris government is aware that the host cities of previous Olympic Games, such as Rio de Janeiro and Athens, are heavily indebted by the rebuilding of stadiums." Time magazine pointed out that many Olympic venues have not been used efficiently and rationally. To avoid this, the Paris Olympics turned many famous monuments into competition venues. Equestrian competitions are held at the Palace of Versailles, and beach volleyball is played under the Eiffel Tower. Diving and swimming competitions, which are popular with audiences all over the world, will be held on the Seine. Due to high pollution and excessive E. coli bacteria, swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923. "For centuries, the Seine has been a dumping place for laundry detergent, excrement, animal organs discarded by medieval butchers." National Geographic magazine in United States summed up Hidalgo's political plan: first renovate the wastewater treatment plant, then connect more than 23,000 homes and yachts to the municipal sewage system, and stop untreated wastewater from flowing into the river. Combined with the newly built reservoir, it is also possible to ensure that rainwater does not back-flow during heavy rains. In the 1970s, there was almost no life in the Seine, and today there are "36 different species of fish". "The Olympics have acted as an accelerator for the Clean Water Project." Pierre Rabadan, the deputy mayor of Paris, said, "Without the Olympics, it would have taken another 1·0 years for this project to be realized." In July 2024, Hidalgo, who went into the water to swim, officially announced that the Seine was "ready for 15 million spectators". After the 2015 terrorist attacks, she decided to lead the bid for the Olympics in Paris, telling the media that Paris would welcome the Olympic audience with a new look in 10 years: "The city of Paris dreams of one thing: fraternity. The Charlie Hebdo affair changed Paris. It makes one aware of the power of the collective mental state. You can't kill our spirits. Parisians, France, will move forward with the support of the whole world. ”
▲Hidalgo swims in the lower Seine.
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