Anne Hidalgo will take a dip in the Seine on June 23 – Libération

The mayor of Paris has chosen the date of June 23 to dive into the Seine. The Paris police chief and the regional prefect were also invited to swim that day, as was the President of the Republic.

The big dive. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will swim in the Seine for Olympic day, June 23, according to information from Le Parisien that Libération was able to confirm. On the banks of the Seine, the Paris Police Prefect, Laurent Nuñez and the prefect of the Île-de-France region, Marc Guillaume, are also expected according to the daily. “Many personalities were invited including the regional prefect and the police prefect” confirms the Paris City Hall. The Paris prefecture clarified to Libération that, “for what [la] concerns”, “no date has been set”.

In this photo which could be taken at the Bras Marie nautical base, one last distinguished guest is expected: Emmanuel Macron. It is impossible at this time to confirm his presence. “A month in advance, the president’s program cannot be precise,” explained Emmanuel Macron’s entourage to Le Parisien, who recalls that Emmanuel Macron has every intention of taking the plunge “before the Olympic Games”.

The mayor of Paris announced in January, during her wishes for the Olympic year, her desire to dive for the month of July. Anne Hidalgo then invited the regional prefect, Marc Guillaume, to accompany her in this “historical dive”, “more than 30 years after Jacques Chirac’s promise”. In 1990, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, had already promised to “bathe in the Seine in front of witnesses” in 1993, without ever keeping his commitment. It was finally last March that the date of June 23 was mentioned for the first time in an interview with Reuters before reiterating his call in April by inviting the president of the International Olympic Committee to put on his jersey for the “great diving”.

Pay attention to the weather

Two unknown variables which could undermine this big splash warn the Paris town hall. “The weather and the pollution of the river.” For such a photo it is better to have a blue sky, especially in the event of severe bad weather – the quantity of rain falling would be such that the Austerlitz storage basin, known as the “storm basin”, would not be able to fulfill its role – the Seine could be too polluted to be swimmable.

Last April, the environmental NGO Surfrider Foundation warned that the level of bacteria in the water between September 2023 and last March was “above or even very well above” the thresholds recommended for swimming. Since then, the “storm basin” and other infrastructure built or renovated to purify the water of the Seine. This is why during the inauguration of the Austerlitz basin last May, Tony Estanguet assured without fear that he had made “an appointment this summer, or even before, to taste the water”. One more head in the photo.