A vote on plans to build the first skyscraper in Paris in 42 years has ended in chaos after the city’s opposition councillors were accused of violating a secret ballot that produced a narrow rejection of the project.
The councillors were voting on a technical resolution that would open the way for the Triangle tower to be built in southern Paris. The 590ft (180-metre) pyramid would be the third tallest building within the city limits after the 1,063ft Eiffel tower and the unsightly 686ft Montparnasse tower, built in 1972.
The Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, refused to admit defeat after the ballot produced 78 votes in favour and 83 against. The councillors had earlier agreed to a secret ballot in a raised-hands vote. However several Greens and centre-right UMP councillors, including UMP opposition leader Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, could be seen brandishing yellow ballots marked “against”.
Addressing the chamber at city hall after the vote, Hidalgo said “the law has not been respected” and announced that she would refer the result to the administrative tribunal. Opposition councillors banged their fists on their desks and gave the thumbs-down in protest at her decision.
The Triangle, to be built in the 15th arrondissement, has been designed by the Swiss architects the of Tate Modern in London, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The €500m (£399m) project is supported by business leaders who point to 3,000 construction jobs being created on the site.
Kosciusko-Morizet had originally supported the Triangle Tower but has switched position and told Les Echos that “an isolated tower doesn’t create jobs, it causes a vacuum around it”.
The highly politicised vote is a low point for Hidalgo only seven months after her election, and shows that Kosciusko-Morizet has been able to unite a disparate opposition.
Opinion polls have shown that local residents are also hostile to the Triangle tower.
