Lording Over the Rings

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Paris’ triumphant hosting of the Olympics this summer has turned into a political fight over the Games’ most well-known symbol, with the French capital’s mayor determined to keep the rings on the city’s most iconic landmark, the Eiffel Tower, for the next four years, Politico reported.

Paris’ Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she wants to keep the multicolor rings on the tower until the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles in four years. But opponents countered that it’s a political ploy ahead of elections in two years, when Hidalgo will face former minister of culture, Rachida Dati, for the city’s top job.

David Alphand, a city councilor and ally of Dati said the rings would serve to remind voters of the success of the city, which was one of about a half-dozen French towns, in hosting the Games.

Meanwhile, the descendants of the engineer who constructed the tower, Gustave Eiffel, are furious over the plan, saying they will take legal action to preserve the integrity of the original work. “(The rings don’t) respect the work of our ancestor,” Olivier Berthelot-Eiffel, a great-great-grandson of Gustave Eiffel, told CBS News.

The Eiffel Tower is often used for political messaging such as support for Ukraine or for commercial purposes, but anything adorning the landmark has always been temporary.

Now, Hidalgo maintains that the decision is up to the city but says she has backup from the International Olympic Committee, BBC News wrote.

Regardless, the rings, weighing 30 tons, are too heavy for the structure. The mayor wants them replaced with lighter versions.