Ailing Eiffel Tower dragged into power play
PARIS
The Eiffel Tower, attacked by rust and well behind on its maintenance schedule, has taken center stage in a power struggle between the Paris mayor and her main rival, the French minister of culture.
A five-day strike at the Eiffel Tower this month drew attention to the monument's bad state of repair.
Unions said the iconic monument was doomed unless its owner, the city of Paris, made massive funds available to get it back into good nick.
The tower's creator, Gustave Eiffel, recommended at the time of its inauguration in 1889 that it should be painted every seven years to keep inevitable rust at bay.
But the 300-meter iron structure has not been given a full paint job since 2010.
Unions said during the strike there were "several corrosion points... visible," which were "signs of a worrying deteriorating of the monument."
Local associations have warned of "safety problems" if the rust is left unchecked.
The protests prompted France's recently-appointed right-wing Culture Minister, Rachida Dati, to weigh in. She said left-wing Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo should ask for the Eiffel Tower to be given "historical monument" status.
Unusually for such a high-profile site, it does not already have that protection.
The classification, Dati said on X, would give the French government the power to override the city of Paris and "undertake construction work, by force if necessary."
"The Eiffel Tower is not sufficiently protected," she said.
The mayor responded by saying she saw no reason to change the Eiffel Tower's status.
Instead she said Dati should come up with "the 1.4 million euros ($1.5 billion) that the government owes for work on the Eiffel Tower."
A major facelift for the monument, launched in 2019, was cut short by the COVID pandemic, and the discovery of significant levels of lead, a poisonous heavy metal, in existing layers of paint.
Following the week-long strike, the Eiffel Tower reopened at the weekend when its operator, SETE, reached agreement with the unions.
