A public spat between officials erupted this week in Paris over the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged cathedral and whether its historic spire should be restored as it was or a new spire built in its place.
A public dispute has arisen between the French officials in charge of the reconstruction of the fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
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Questioned on Wednesday by MPs, Georgelin said, “the matter will be solved in a serene manner, and on time”. He added: “I have already explained to the chief architect that he should just shut his big mouth, and I will do it again.” Several MPs protested against Georgelin’s language and the Senate cultural commission judged him unfit to lead the agency expected to manage the €1bn reconstruction. France’s culture minister Frank Riester, who is known to be at odds with the brusque manners of the general, tweeted that Georgelin’s remarks “are not acceptable”. He later told the press that Elysée Palace asked Georgelin to “exercise better judgement and avoid any kind of public pronouncement in the media from now on”1.
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- 1. A public dispute has arisen between the French officials in charge of the reconstruction of the fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who is President Emmanuel Macron's special representative on the project, stunned MPs by insulting the chief architect in charge of the cathedral, telling him “to shut his big mouth” in front of the National Assembly’s cultural commission. The architect, Philippe Villeneuve, threatened to resign last month if the spire that was destroyed in April’s fire were not reconstructed in its original form. “I will restore it identically and it will be me, or they will build a modern spire and it won't be me,” Villeneuve said during a broadcast interview.