Paris renames the banks of the Seine opposite the Musée d’Orsay as Quai Valéry-Giscard-d’Estaing
View of the quays in front of the Musée d’Orsay, in September 2013. BERTRAND GUAY, AFP
Anne Hidalgo paid tribute to the former President of the Republic, to whom the French capital “owes a lot”. At the Council of Paris, the elected EELV Alice Coffin wanted to recall the sexual assaults of which the former president had been accused.
The memory of former President of the Republic dock opposite at the Musée d’Orsay. The Council of Paris on Tuesday renamed quai Valéry-Giscard-d’Estaing the quai de Seine located in front of the large establishment dedicated to the arts of the 19th century.e century. The city pays tribute to the former president, died in 2020 at the age of 94which had transformed under his mandate the old station into a museum.
A section of Quai Anatole-France and Place Henry-de-Montherlant, in the 7e district, will soon bear the name of the man who, as Head of State between 1974 and 1981, will have “enabled Europe to gain confidence in itself and in its destiny”greeted the mayor Anne Hidalgo. “Paris owes him a lot”added the socialist councilor, recalling that the centrist president had “put an end to a democratic anomaly for a century” by allowing Parisians “to elect their mayor by universal suffrage from 1977”.
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An ambivalent legacy
In addition to the creation of the Musée d’Orsay, “temple of impressionism”, the former tenant of the Élysée was at the initiative of the city of Sciences and Industry, the Parc de la Villette which surrounds it and the Institute of the Arab world, recalled Anne Hidalgo. His son Louis Giscard d’Estaingmayor of Chamalières (Puy-de-Dôme) and former UMP deputy, sat on Tuesday alongside the mayor of Paris.
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On the death of the former president, his family had spoken out in favor of renaming the Musée d’Orsay which would pay homage to the role played by Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing in its creation. A similar case was carried out in 2016, with the musée du quai Branly, renamed the Quai Branly Museum – Jacques Chirac. After the death of Jacques Chiracin 2019, the Council of Paris voted in favor of renaming the quay adjoining the museum, renamed Quai Jacques Chirac in April 2021.
The elected member of the environmental group (EELV) Alice Coffindid not fail to recall on this occasion that two women had “denounced the sexual assault and harassment of the former President of the Republic”. In 2021, the former head of the Danish government had accused the former French president to have him “grabbed the thigh under the table” at a dinner party in the early 2000s. In March 2020, German public television journalist WDR Kathrin Stracke had filed a complaint against “VGE”, accusing him of having put his hand on his buttocks three times during an interview. the interested party had then considered “grotesque” these charges.
