In Paris, Hidalgo relaunches the battle of Trocadéro

This is the surprise of his interview with Ouest-France, broadcast Monday evening. “After the Olympic Games, cars will not return to the Eiffel Tower,” says the socialist councilor, who made a similar announcement in mid-January about the eastern half of Place de la Concorde.

A “vegetated” Trocadéro, a “pedestrianized” Iéna Bridge and a “reforested” Champ-de-Mars: “the whole will form a large park in the heart of Paris,” adds Anne Hidalgo, who reduced the car place in the capital the marker of its time.

During her first mandate (2014-2020), she took two years to triumph in appeals against the pedestrianization of the quays on the right bank of the Seine.

The Trocadéro-Eiffel Tower file is taking up even more time: she presented it in May 2019.

The project then selected, called "One", provided for the 2024 Olympic Games the closure to traffic of half of the Place du Trocadéro, transformed into a green amphitheater, the pedestrianization of the Iéna bridge planted with trees and the renovation of the Champ-de-Mars, with the installation of a locker at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

But since then, the issue has gone from disappointment to disappointment: health crisis, revolt from local residents and the three right-wing district mayors concerned (7th, 15th, 16th), controversy over the trees felled at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and veto of former police chief Didier Lallement.

In May 2022, the latter said he feared “significant traffic delays” and “detentions” likely to slow down the emergency response. Succeeding him the following summer, Laurent Nunez maintained this position.

And tourists, returning to one of the most visited monuments in the world (6,3 million visitors in 2023, more than in 2019), continue to take photos among the cars on the Pont d'Iéna.

A test broadcast tower

Rejected by administrative justice at the end of 2022 then at the beginning of 2023 on appeal, the town hall concluded that the project "was not intended to be implemented as such", recognized the first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire on Tuesday morning.

But like Place de la Concorde, the Olympic Games offer Anne Hidalgo a new window of opportunity: at the Trocadéro, a "tower for broadcasting television images will help to reduce the space for cars", she underlined in the Council of Paris.

The town hall therefore re-released the file in “a modified form submitted to the police headquarters”, explained Emmanuel Grégoire.

The left-wing executive is now demanding the "pedestrianization and revegetation of the Place du Trocadéro and the Pont d'Iéna" alone, without the Eiffel Tower and the Champ-de-Mars, and this "from the month of October".

Sitting for the first time as Minister of Culture and opponent, Rachida Dati, from LR, denounced a new “coup de force” while the project seemed “abandoned”.

“The opinion of the 6.000 Parisians collected by the public inquiry, of elected officials, of the police prefect, and even the repeated opinion of the courts, does not matter to you,” also criticized Catherine Ibled (Renaissance).

Seeing his words as very "awaited", the prefect Laurent Nunez maintained his opposition "as the case stands", considering that there remained "still questions (...) on several points".

In addition to the status of "a certain number of lanes, avenues whose direction of traffic may have changed", the traffic study that he received at the end of 2023 from the town hall "suggests that we still have, on certain axes (...) important for the circulation of emergency and health vehicles, embarrassments", in particular "the Alma bridge, the Concorde, avenue Mandel", he explained.

The State representative, however, showed himself open to a re-examination, on the basis of the technical documents promised by the town hall.

These will be transmitted “very quickly”, assured Anne Hidalgo, eager to be able to “move forward on this fundamental project”.