"
You have to have a plan if you want to rebuild [the city]... Transforming urban infrastructure, and moving from cars to bicycles, that's very interesting
."
Very seriously, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo allows herself this advice to the brother of the mayor of kyiv, during the kyiv 2022 Investment Forum in Brussels on November 28.
The subject of the discussion was the reconstruction projects of the Ukrainian capital.
To discover
Follow information on the war in Ukraine with the Figaro application
This video excerpt from Anne Hidalgo's speech, relayed on Twitter in recent days, has not failed to make Internet users react, while the mayor of Paris is regularly singled out for her "
100% cycling
" policy.
“
What a feeling of unease
.
She is promoting cycling to the mayor
(sic)
of a capital of a country at war...
”laments a Twitter user in the comment.
“
Pedaling, it warms up when the majority of the inhabitants of Kiev do not have electricity
”, ironically another, sharply criticizing the city councilor of Paris for his disconnection from the realities of war.
Give pride of place to bicycles
"
The city of Copenhagen, which gave pride of place to the circulation of bicycles, was a model for the city of Paris
", insists the mayor of Paris to an impassive Wladimir Klitschko.
“
We can work together, drawing on these experiences.
»
This forum brought together around fifteen European mayors, including the mayor of Paris, as well as the brother of the mayor of kyiv, who could not be present, Wladimir Klitschko, former world boxing champion.
Chaired by Philippe Close, mayor of Brussels, and the city councilor of kyiv - present by videoconference - the forum focused on the discussions on the current resilience of the Ukrainian capital, and the potential solutions to work on its reconstruction.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: the secrets of a Ukrainian soldier on leave in France
"
I am sure that Kyiv and the capital agglomeration have a unique chance to take a big step forward - in modernization, development, creation of comfortable conditions for living, working and learning opportunities for inhabitants of the communities
,” said Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kiev, quoted by the Press Club Brussels Europe
.
A metro renovation project, sponsored by fourteen European cities, has now been launched, but the need for infrastructure reconstruction remains immense.
The mayor of kyiv said that his fellow citizens had already started to get involved: according to today, three quarters of the businesses closed following the Russian offensive are now open.
