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Eiffel Tower to go dark for St Petersburg victims after Paris mayor comes under pressure

The Local France
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Eiffel Tower to go dark for St Petersburg victims after Paris mayor comes under pressure
Photo: AFP

The mayor of Paris came under pressure to explain why the Eiffel Tower did not pay its usual respects to the victims of Monday's terror attack in St Petersburg as it did for those killed in London, Orlando and Brussels. She then announced the Iron Lady would dim her lights on Tuesday night.

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In recent months Paris has chosen to pay pay homage to the victims of terror attacks and show solidarity with those countries or communities targeted by turning to the Iron Lady.

The images below show the famous Paris monument either switched off or lit up in the colours of a country to mark the victims of terror attacks throughout the world.

The most recent being last month's London attack when lights were dimmed that night.

And the Eiffel Tower also paid tribute to those killed in the Brussels bombings in March last year by lighting up in the colours of the Belgian flag.

And it was illuminated in the colours of the rainbow flag in honour of the victims killed at the gay nightclub in Orlando last year. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted out the message with the hashtag #lovewins.

But Hidalgo came under pressure on Tuesday, at least from some angry social media users, to explain why the Eiffel Tower did not pay homage to the 14 people killed in Monday's metro bombing in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

“Why no Russian flag on the Eiffel Tower? Do some deaths count more than others?” said one tweeter, summing up many of the tweets sent in the direction of Paris City Hall and Mayor Hidalgo.

Some accused Paris's Socialist mayor of being a "Russiaphobe"

Far right National Front councillor Gabriel de Payrecave whose party leader Marine Le Pen has forged close ties with Vladimir Putin said: “Mrs Hidalgo, no support, no solidarity for Russia after the attack?”

Paris City Hall did not responded to a request for an explanation from The Local but then Hidalgo announced that after all the Iron Lady would pay her respects.

The lack of a tribute had been noticed by Russian state media site Russia Today, which published an article on the lack of tributes in certain countries.

The row in Paris echoed a similar row in Berlin where authorities also declined to stage their usual tribute to the victims in St Petersburg.

While the famous Brandenburg Gate has lit up in the colours of the flags of the UK, Israel, Turkey and France before, there was no Russian flag beamed onto the monument on Monday night.

A spokesperson for the Berlin Senate explained that the city had decided to only light up the famous structure for terrorist victims in “partner cities” of Berlin, or in exceptional cases.

Yet many pointed out that Orlando is not a partner city yet the Brandenburg Gate still paid a colourful tribute to those killed in the nightclub terror attack.

 

 

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