Since the end of October, the mayor of Paris has been criticized for a three-week trip to New Caledonia and Tahiti. A trip justified by a visit to Olympic facilities, but which also included a private component.
An official trip or a trip above all personal? The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has attracted the wrath of the municipal right since the end of October, due to a trip in French Polynesia presented as “official” by his entourage, although followed by vacation. Franceinfo returns to the criticisms made by its opposition, as well as the defense of the councilor.
1 The “Canard Enchaîné” draws attention to Anne Hidalgo’s trip to Polynesia
THE Chained Duck published, on October 25, an article assuring, via comments attributed to the Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, that Anne Hidalgo is absent from the capital for several weeks. At issue: the inspection, in Tahiti, of the infrastructures for the surfing event of the Olympic Games planned for Paris in 2024, according to these reported comments.
The mayor of the capital would have even missed an interministerial committee scheduled for October 20 and relating to the Olympics due to this trip, preventing the validation of the traffic plan in Paris for the Olympic period, again according to comments attributed to the police prefect. Contacted by BFMTV a few days later, the police headquarters assured “do not confirm [les] about” attributed to Laurent Nuñez by the Duck.
If the weekly article was widely commented on on X (formerly Twitter), Anne Hidalgo’s trip had until then received very little media coverage, except from local media. Their trip is, depending on the case, described as an official trip linked to the 2024 Olympic Games, or on the contrary, as a personal trip. Thus, the television news of La 1ère Polynésie, broadcast on October 20, mentions a visit “fueled by personal events”, but which nevertheless includes sequences with local authorities, for example “Republican courtesy”.
2 The right-wing opposition in Paris demands explanations from the mayor
“To prepare for the Olympics and resolve thorny practical questions, we will have to wait until mid-November for the end of Anne Hidalgo’s festive tour. She will have been traveling for a month…”, castigates X Aurélien Véron, the spokesperson for the right-wing opposition group Changer Paris, led by Rachida Dati, on the day of publication of the article Chained Duck.
Always on the social networkthe opposition group denounced in the following days the “ecology lessons” of the mayor of Paris, who “travel around the world at the expense of Parisians”. The group, which brings together Republican and related elected officials, drives the point home by ensuring that the “20 trips around the world” carried out by Anne Hidalgo in an official capacity since her re-election in 2020 equivalent, according to her estimates, to a carbon footprint of “51 tonnes of CO2”. “Anne Hidalgo will be on an official visit to Paris from November 14 to 17”, he mocks also.
Changer Paris finally sent a written question to the mayor of the capital, on October 30, asking her to “specify the goals and program of this trip”as well as its “cost” and the distribution of its support, between the town hall and the personal finances of the councilor. The controversy goes beyond the Parisian circle, the Reconquest MEP, Gilbert Collard, denouncing on of the “Olympic vacation”.
3 Anne Hidalgo defends herself in the press, via her entourage
The councilor’s entourage, interviewed on October 30 by BFMTV, considers the controversy “distressing”. It recognizes a trip by the mayor of Paris to New Caledonia and Polynesia from October 16 to 21, followed by vacation, for a return to Paris on November 6. According to Anne Hidalgo’s team, the official part of her program included a visit to the Isle of Pines, in New Caledonia, where more than 1,300 communards were exiled, a visit to the Olympic site of surfing at Teahupoo in Tahiti, as well as meetings with local elected officials.
Also joined by AFP, Anne Hidalgo’s team assures, with supporting photos, that it was indeed a “official visit”. In these photos, which were not published on social networks as is usually the case during this type of travel, we see Anne Hidalgo, accompanied by her deputies in charge of the Olympic Games and Overseas Territories, Pierre Rabadan and Jacques Martial, with several Polynesian elected officials, including the president of the community Moetai Brotherson. But the presidency of French Polynesia, for its part, assures AFP that this “sequence” was not “not official”.
Nearby Parisiana socialist close to the mayor explains, on November 2, the absence of photos on social networks by the wish not to “appear out of place, given the context. People would have imagined a life in the lagoons, while the work days were intense.” Another relative specifies that the councilor’s vacation consists of visiting his daughter, “who has just moved to an island 45 minutes by plane from Tahiti, in Raiatea”. “The trip to Polynesia was organized well before this move. Anne Hidalgo would have gone there in any case”assures this source.
4 “Le Parisien” reveals that Anne Hidalgo did not visit the Olympic surfing site in Teahupoo
Patatras: November 3, The Parisian reveals that the main sequence of the trip of the mayor and her team to Polynesia, the visit to the Olympic surfing site in Teahupoo, in Tahiti, actually took place… without Anne Hidalgo.
This visit, scheduled for October 21, has been postponed “in view of the climate of tension on site”, recognizes the mayor of Paris to the daily newspaper. Teahupoo residents and associations are concerned about the environmental impact of the installation of an aluminum judges’ tower on the coast. On a daily basis, the Paris town hall ensures that the visit, postponed until the next day, took place without the presence of Anne Hidalgo “by mutual agreement with the local authorities (…) to avoid (…) [susciter] tensions”. It was then her deputy for sport, Pierre Rabadan, who was responsible for representing her. Anne Hidalgo’s team also ensures that the mayor of Paris herself covered the cost of her return ticket.
Explanations which do not satisfy the Parisian right-wing opposition. “Everything proves that this trip to the South Pacific is an alibi trip”denounces David Alphand, vice-president of the Changer Paris group, in The Parisian. “Tony Estanguet [le président de Paris 2024] and the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra have already visited the site two months ago. Nothing justified this trip by Anne Hidalgo who is only the mayor of the host city. She held a series of protocol meetings organized in view of her notoriety, but did not hold any work meetings.”
5 Anne Hidalgo’s sports assistant delivers a new version
On November 4, Pierre Rabadan in turn defended Anne Hidalgo in The Parisian. “This trip to these French territories was legitimate”because “Anne Hidalgo is the mayor of (…) the host city of the 2024 Olympic Games” but also the “president of the International Association of French-speaking Mayors”he insists, invoking “around fifteen sequences” official.
But it also provides a new version of the absence of Anne Hidalgo on the Teahupoo surf site. According to him, the mayor ultimately did not attend the visit postponed to October 22, because she had to join her daughter for her vacation that day. “She could have [repousser son départ]but she had to change her ticket”, justifies the deputy. The latter, who does not provide the total amount of the trip, ensures that the town hall paid for the tickets “economy class”and to have “stayed in comfortable, but not particularly luxurious, hotels.”
“Yet another version of the pseudo-official trip. Every day, the town hall releases a new one (…). Madam Mayor Anne Hidalgo, you must explain yourself to the Parisians!”thundered on Sunday on elected David Alphand.