Promise finally kept. The mayor of Paris bathed in the Seine on Wednesday morning. Franceinfo tells you the behind the scenes of a simple “splash” that became an object of communication and even a political act.
This time, it was for real. After several postponements due to unpredictable weather and excessive flow of the river, then the dissolution of the National Assembly, Anne Hidalgo dove into the Seine on Wednesday, July 17. At 10 a.m., the mayor of Paris put her feet in the water near the Pont Marie, not far from the Hôtel de Ville. “It’s happiness, the socialist elected official exclaimed, her hair wet, back on dry land. We’ve been dreaming about this for years and years. We’ve worked very, very hard. And then you go down into the water, it seems natural, it seems easy…”
A few days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26 and the triathlon and open water swimming, the mayor of Paris has finally honored a commitment made several months ago. “Everyone said it was impossible, we did it. (…) We will swim in the Seine”she declared during her vowsin January. EAt the beginning of the week, the future swimmer had a smile on her face: “It’s going to be a joyful, festive, collective moment. There’s going to be a lot of joy and we’re going to try to do some nice dives.”
And to make this moment “joyful, festive, collective”, The socialist elected official had not skimped on invitations. Several personalities agreed to accompany him in the water: his deputy for Sports, Pierre Rabadan; the head of the organization of these Games, Tony Estanguet; the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, Marc Guillaume… “We want the photo to be as beautiful as possible”, his entourage projected at the beginning of the week.
Anne Hidalgo, “rather good swimmer”trained in a swimming pool. Chlorinated, therefore. She was keen not to wear a full wetsuit, unlike the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who went into the water on Saturday morning, “protected from head to toe”, like triathletes used to swimming in chilly bodies of water. “We want to show the swimmability of the Seine, that’s the message, insists the entourage of the mayor of Paris. We want to convince the public that the water is clean.”
“The public saw a minister who went into the water alone, on a Saturday morning. For us, it’s not just a splash, it’s a collective swim around the mayor of Paris. It’s nothing like that.”
Anne Hidalgo’s entourageto franceinfo
Just one more communication issue, this “splash” in the Parisian river has become a political act. “There is some Jacques Chirac behind this sequence”, recalls Jean-François Lamour, who was Minister of Sports during his second term, from 2002 to 2007. “He was the one who made that promise first. [alors qu’il était maire de Paris]. We talked about it regularly, by the way. Forty years later, I find this desire to make the river swimmable absolutely commendable. But it must not be a coup, we must maintain this quality after the Games so that everyone can benefit from it.” History will record that Jacques Chirac never swam in the Seine, as he promised in 1988.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was therefore the first to “taste” the Seine. ButThe Ministry of Sports has denies having wanted to steal the show from anyone: “The minister was alongside Alexis Hanquinquant, who was celebrating his election as French flag bearer for the Games. He had promised to go swimming if he was elected, she was proud to take up this challenge with him on the day the flag bearers were gathered for the first time.”
“We are not here to count the points of who does it when, and with whom. The objective was to remind people that the State had committed to making the Seine swimmable, that it has invested a lot and that the promise has been kept.”
The entourage of the Minister of Sportsto franceinfo
As proof of the importance of the matter, the entourage of the Minister of Sports confirms that “discussions took place with the Elysée office prior to this sequence, which was organized in conjunction with the regional prefecture.”
The president himself has pledged to take the plunge. “And how… Yes, I will go”, Emmanuel Macron said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Olympic village at the end of February. “I’m not going to give you the date, you might be there.” Four months later, the presidential promise is still in the pipeline. “He will do it”confirms her entourage to franceinfo. But still without giving a precise date.
But faced with this staging, teeth are grinding. Some regret “a permanent cinema”. Others believe that this sequence “arm wrestling in the Seine” has lasted too long. “Let the mayor go for a swim and we’ll move on,” an opposition elected official quipped. In mid-June, on Sud Radio, Rachida Dati, Anne Hidalgo’s rival in the capital, quipped: “She said: ‘What Jacques Chirac didn’t do, I’m going to do.’ Well, go ahead!” Clearly skeptical about the success of the clean-up operation, she dismissed the idea of getting involved: “Me, no. Water is not my element, generally speaking. And swimming in the Seine, no.”
Senior officials contacted by franceinfo also wondered quietly: “Is it really the place of a prefect of the Republic to put himself on display in the water?” Jean-Jacques Brot, who held this position in Yvelines until last March, does not share this opinion: “If I had still been in office, I would have gone there too!he swears. This swim should be seen as a celebration of tedious, costly administrative work that has borne fruit. It should be seen as the completion of the often heavy work that began years ago, carried out by engineers and teams. It is something that will benefit everyone in the future.”
Anne Hidalgo has this plan in mind. She promises that by the summer of 2025, the Seine will be available to swimming enthusiasts, at Bercy, the Marie arm (between the Île Saint-Louis and Saint-Paul) and the Grenelle arm.
At the headquarters of the Ile-de-France region, images of the mayor of Paris splashing around in the Seine quickly circulated in the offices.No one dared to suggest to Valérie Pécresse that she take the plunge. However, the Paris region is funding the Games to the tune of more than 500 million euros. “You know, the president is serious about politics.”defends Patrick Karam, its vice-president in charge of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “It’s really not her thing. The Minister of Sports and the Mayor of Paris had promised to do it, they did it, very well! But our president? No, no. I myself was a swimming champion of Guadeloupe. But am I going to swim in the Seine? No!”
“At the time of the Covid-19 vaccines, politicians were getting vaccinated. Now, they’re swimming in the Seine.”
Patrick Karam, Vice-President of the Ile-de-France regionto franceinfo
Patrick Karam tells franceinfo that he congratulated the Minister of Sports, Saturday, after his swim. “I bow to the artist. You have managed to outdo the PR [président de la République] and to the mayor of Paris”, he assures to have written by SMS. “She answered me : ‘Patrick, it’s carpe diem. Act while you’re here.'”