The sequence made Internet users jump on Twitter. Guest of France info this Friday, the Renaissance deputy (ex-LREM) Karl Olive seemed to put into perspective the security problems on the construction sites of the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar, in comparison with “the construction of the Eiffel Tower”.
“We must not confuse and mix what should not be mixed. At that time, we can also remember that at the time of the construction of the Eiffel Tower, there were more than 300 deaths, ”he said at the microphone of the radio.
Karl Olive was asked about the ratification by Parliament on Thursday of a partnership between Paris and Doha on the security of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with the help of around 220 French experts: GIGN, fight against drones , demining or searching for explosives. In the hemicycle, several opposition deputies had then denounced the “ecological scandal” of this World Cup with air-conditioned stadiums or the “scandalous treatment of workers” migrants, “quasi-slaves”.
” Shame. An LREM deputy defends Qatar with false figures and a mind-blowing comparison with the construction of the Eiffel Tower”, reacted LFI deputy Thomas Portes, believing that “this World Cup is built on a pile of corpses”.
The site of the Parisian monument indeed claims that there was only one fatal accident during its construction. “We do not deplore any deaths among the 117 riveters and “chimney sweeps” recruited from among the carpenters. A fatal accident nevertheless left the site in mourning, an Italian worker who fell outside his working hours and whose widow Eiffel discreetly compensated., specifies the architect and historian Bertrand Lemoine on the site of the Eiffel Tower.
Under the fire of criticism, especially from the left, the deputy backpedaled later in the morning, on Twitter: “The 300 people (370 precisely) that I mentioned did not perish during the construction of the site of the Tower Eiffel but since its construction in 1887. This example was unwelcome. I am sorry for that. »
Qatar has been repeatedly criticized for its treatment of migrant workers, especially those working in construction. Doha stressed that it had since made enormous efforts to improve the lot of foreign workers by imposing a minimum wage – around 270 euros per month – and by prohibiting the omnipotence of certain employers who prevented their employees from leaving the country or to change jobs.
