RAQUEL VILLAÉCIJAParis Correspondent

Paris Correspondent

Updated Monday, February 19, 2024-17:22

"Due to strike, the Eiffel Tower will be closed." Laura and Nicola,

Italian tourists passing through Paris

, found this message at the doors of the most visited monument in the French capital. "It's a chore, it's the first time we visited Paris and we really wanted to go up there," she explains.

Paul comes from Marseille, also with his family, and they hoped to be able to access the facilities. "We come from Marseille or we can return another day, but it is still disappointing, if we had known we would have tried to change the dates," says this tourist.

Like them, thousands of tourists have found this Monday that

the most sought-after monument in the city is closed today due to a staff strike that could last all this week

. Denis Vavassori, a worker at the Eiffel Tower, explains that between 16,000 and 18,000 people visit it every day, which "already gives an idea of ​​the loss it represents."

The decision to stop has been made by the company in charge of operating the tower, (Sete, in its French acronym), which is 99% owned by the Paris City Council. The unions calling the protest, the CGT and the Fuerza Obrera (FO), demand

better financial management

of the monument by the Paris City Council.

They denounce that the budget is not enough to carry out the work necessary for the proper maintenance of the tower, while the City Council demands more money from them for its exploitation. "They see it as a gold mine, but if expenses and income are not balanced,

we run the risk of going into deficit

," says Vavassori.

VR

The tower generates a turnover of 120 million euros (2023 figures), but the costs "have skyrocketed." He denounces that they lack material to carry out the work, that there are parts that are obsolete "the areas of corrosion are visible, the deterioration of the monument is visible."

The tower is painted every seven years and he explains that, in the last campaign, the budget was only enough to cover part of these works.

The outside has been painted for the Olympic Games "but not the inside."

They ask to have an interlocutor in the City Council, because

"there is no good cost management

," he declares, and assures that the workers are willing to go on strike at the Olympic Games, which are held from July 26 to August 11. "They are determined to do it if the City Council does not change its position," he explains. This afternoon the company's management has a meeting to decide whether to continue with the strikes.

The closure has not prevented thousands of people from gathering around the emblematic monument, like every day, more to take photos than to see the tower. "Are they always on strike here? We have encountered problems with the trains due to a strike and now this," protests Matías, an Argentine tourist.