Eiffel Tower chief stepping down over removal of women staff for Hindu group’s visit
Por Agence France-Presse — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement France World Europe Eiffel Tower chief stepping down over removal of women staff for Hindu group’s visit
The decision to comply with the group’s request to limit ‘interactions with women’ sparked a staff walkout and an outcry in France
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Agence France-Presse Published: 1:36am, 30 Sep 2026
The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower said Tuesday its chief would step down at the end of this year in the wake of a controversy over the removal of women staff during a visit by a Hindu religious group.
Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has been director general of the Paris landmark since 2018, would leave his job at the end of the year after an internal probe revealed that “operational flaws and shortcomings” in organising the visit led to the “unacceptable” removal of women staff, the company SETE said in a statement.
The removal of women staff during a visit by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement on September 5 prompted a staff walkout and the closure of the monument for a day, as well as an outcry across the political spectrum in France which prizes secularism and gender equality.
At the time, SETE acknowledged the Hindu delegation had requested the visit be organised so as to limit “interactions with women” and said that “these conditions should not have been accepted”.
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