New flash for a Paris Light - Bertrand Delanoë
October 13, 2002 - The Boston Sunday Globe
PARIS - The mood in the City of Light could not have been brighter. Hundreds of thousands turned out Oct. 5 as Mayor Bertrand Delanoe kicked off La Nuit Blanche, an all-night celebration of art and music across Paris.
Early in the evening, Delanoe visited a swimming pool that had been converted into an art installation, then returned to City Hall, where thousands waited for their chance to see the opulent salons, which had been transformed into themed lounges.
But as Delanoe breezed through the crowd at about 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, a man lunged and stabbed him with a knife, missing his aorta by less than an inch. The accused attacker, Azedine Berkane, 39, a computer programmer from a Paris suburb, is alleged to have told authorities, ‘‘I don’t like politicians and I don’t like homosexuals.’’ Delanoe is both.
Before he was rushed to the hospital, Delanoe said: ‘‘Let the party continue.’‘
Since the attack, Parisians have rallied around Delanoe, who is hospitalized but recovering. Since taking office 18 months ago, the 52-year-old Socialist has been one of the bright spots for France’s political left, which is struggling after being pummeled by conservatives in presidential and legislative elections last spring.
As the left continues its leaderless infighting, Delanoe seems content to ride out the storm. He is even being mentioned as a possible contender in the the 2007 presidential elections.
The city’s deputy mayor, Pierre Schapira, has been a friend of Delanoe’s for more than 30 years. ‘‘Bertrand succeeds in Paris because he focuses on Paris alone. He wants it to be a town that has a spark - something it didn’t have before he took office,’’ he said.
In March 2001, Delanoe was considered a long shot in the mayor’s race. Paris had been a bastion of the right under its previous mayors, Jean Tiberi and Jacques Chirac, now the president. But in 1995, Delanoe began breaking their grip.
Then, as a Socialist Party senator for Paris, Delanoe led the left in retaking six of 20 arrondissements in the 1995 municipal elections.
‘‘This was the first hole in the wall,’’ said Jerome Sainte-Marie, head of opinion studies at the French polling group BVA.
‘‘Delanoe took advantage of a fractured right, a right that everyone thought of as invincible in Paris.’‘
In the city’s 2001 mayoral elections, the left looked to a Socialist legislator and a scholar, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who thought the conservatives’ 130-year hold on the mayor’s office was too strong and declined to run.
‘‘At this point, Delanoe had emerged as the embodiment of social change for Paris and for the left as a whole,’’ Sainte-Marie said. This, combined with the right’s internal squabbles, helped lift Delanoe to victory. His homosexuality has made few waves.
Parisians praise the mayor, saying he has given one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations back to its inhabitants.
There have been several initiatives:
Nuit Blanche (literally white night, but usually meaning all-nighter) opened up public places that close at sundown, and turned them into art, concert, and social spaces. Hundreds of thousands of Parisians poured into the streets, and into these newly opened venues. The streets were as packed at 6 in the morning as they had been at 10 the previous night.
This summer, the Paris Beach program turned several miles of in-town high-speed roadway along the Seine into a palm-lined boardwalk for a month. Millions of Parisians and tourists came out to walk uncharted territory, usually a car-crammed and dangerous motorway, and play boules (a French version of bocce), skateboard, have a drink, or just stroll and take in their town.
Delanoe has given bikers and bus riders lanes of their own, offering relief from the congested Parisian traffic. The lanes have many up in arms, such as out-of-town delivery drivers.
‘‘This has been his most controversial measure since taking office, but pollution levels are much too high in town,’’ Schapira said. Then, seemingly explaining both the issue and Delanoe in general: ‘‘He’s someone who has convictions but is willing to compromise, but he won’t back down on this.’‘
Schapira added: ‘‘Delanoe is simple, he’s direct, and he’s in constant contact with Parisians. Unfortunately, this contact resulted in last Saturday night’s attack.’‘
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
