This is Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo at the closing ceremony. She was the one who started Paris’ campaign 9 years ago, after the worst terrorist attacks the city had ever known she became one of the most passionate (if not only) advocates for the games in the city.
If you’re not French, chances are you do not know her. She is pretty hated within the French population, mostly for her anti-car politics. Her opponents have always said she was “destroying” Paris. It was one of France’s most popular top tweets " #saccageparis". Even though she’s been re-elected, she’s been called every name in the books, lunatic, crazy (dingo) and so on and so forth, and everyone was betting on her to fail. Honestly ? Myself included.
When I turned on the Games, I was expecting to see her gloating everywhere, from the opening to the closing. Tweeting about the games, Léon Marchand’s victory and so on. Turns out the closing was the first time I did saw her. She remained very discreet the whole 2 weeks, not going to pose with the French champions or drying their tears like other French politicians did.
Now let’s be clear, the lady has flaws, but her and her administration’s ambition’s for these games in the face of constant public opposition ended up proving me wrong. This is a huge victory for Paris. Congrats, mrs Mayor !
“Anti-car” sounds fantastic. And I have a feeling I would not particularly enjoy the compact of the people that deride someone as “anti-car” since any intelligent person sees the long term benefit of being pro-public transportation and pedestrianism.
For all the people that cry on about the people that can’t use public transportation or walk, this actually clears up traffic for them and makes it easier for them to commute. Traffic lessens and competition for parking diminishes. So again, it comes down to critical thinking, or a lack of it.