The cliché must go down in history. According to our information, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will dive into the Seine on June 23 along with the chief of the Parisian police, Laurent Nunez, and the prefect of the region, Marc Guillaume. The Parisian restaurant Bras Marie is planning to host a personal bath. Also, according to our information, Emmanuel Macron should be sailing next to them. Information that the head of state’s entourage did not want to confirm at this stage, however, pointing out that the president of the republic “will swim in the Seine before the Olympic Games.”
In January, while taking her vows, Anne Hidalgo announced her desire to dive into a Parisian river to convince people that “the Seine is a river that we care about.” Two months later, she clarified that she planned to do it during Olympic and Paralympic Day on June 23, after initially mentioning July. Therefore, this date was finally approved. However, in the event of bad weather conditions or peak pollution of the Seine, this collapse of personalities could be delayed by a week, people close to Anna Hidalgo warn.
At the end of February, during the opening of the Olympic village, Emmanuel Macron also promised to dive into the Seine, “a river that the next day will change its face and purpose.” The head of the Parisian police, Laurent Nunez, for his part, promised to accompany Anna Hidalgo in her swim along with the region’s prefect, Marc Guillaume.
Jacques Chirac promised this
In 1990, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, promised to “take a swim in the Seine in front of witnesses.” But the ex-president never kept his commitment. Since 2016, the state and local authorities of Ile-de-France have invested around 1.4 billion euros in making the Seine and its main tributary, the Marne, swimmable. “Everyone said it was impossible, we did it,” said Anne Hidalgo, who announced in July 2023 the opening in the summer of 2025 of three swimming spots for the general public in the capital, in Bercy, Grenel and between Illes. Saint-Louis and Marais.
On April 8, the NGO Surfrider Fondation expressed “growing concerns about the quality of the Seine” and the “risks athletes face when playing in contaminated water.” Of the 14 samples the NGO carried out in the Seine in Paris between September and March 2024, 13 found the presence of certain bacteria, including E. coli and enterococci, with threshold values “above or even much higher” than the standards set European Union and International Swimming and Triathlon Federation. The authorities, for their part, condemned the biased sampling method, knowing that all the structures intended to clean the Seine have not yet seen the light of day, such as the Austerlitz reservoir, which is now in operation.
Source: Le Parisien
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