The first deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, announced Thursday that Mayor Anne Hidalgo would like to make public the travel of elected officials in connection with their mandate, after the lively debate that her recent trip to the Pacific caused.
Referring to “the debate on the Mayor’s trip which was organized both in New Caledonia and in Tahiti”, Emmanuel Grégoire indicated that “faced with the numerous comments which were observed in the press, the Mayor decided to urgently initiate the publication of a deliberation which will propose to the Paris Council to modify the code of ethics concerning travel”, during the Paris Council next week, he indicated during a press conference.
A trip geared towards the Olympic Games
The code of ethics of Paris City Hall recommends the declaration of trips which are linked to the mandate, which must be the subject of an annual declaration. “The mayor completes these travel declarations with the ethics commission (…) and we will add the possibility of making them public. Obviously the mayor will make them public for trips that have been organized for the year 2023,” said he added.
The trip by Anne Hidalgo, accompanied by her deputies for Sports Pierre Rabadan and Overseas Jacques Martial, took place from October 16 to 22, according to the agenda sent on Monday, a posteriori, by the City, which had not so far no official communication on this subject. Its particular aim, according to the town hall, was to evoke the Olympic Games, the surfing event of which was to be held at the Teahupoo site in Tahiti.
High transport costs of 40,955 euros
But the mayor did not go in person to this site, being represented by Pierre Rabadan, the town hall acknowledged in the press release on Monday, explaining that this decision had been taken “at the request of the Polynesian president” Moetai Brotherson, of made of “local tensions”. “The mayor of Paris extended her official trip with private time entirely at her expense,” and she returned on Sunday, November 5, paying for her return ticket out of her own pocket, adds the town hall.
The transport costs of the Parisian delegation, made up of six people (three elected officials and three collaborators) amounted to 40,955 euros, and the accommodation and catering costs to 18,545 euros, “in accordance with the practices in force in the three functions territorial public authorities”, according to the City. This long trip – first official then private – by the mayor of Paris was widely criticized by the right-wing opposition, mocking the carbon footprint and the cost of this trip.