A new battle of arms is taking place on the construction site of “la Boîte à Claps” in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. The renovation of the premises of the former Polytechnique school is at the center of a pitched battle with on one side a collective of former and current students of the prestigious engineering school, called “Polytechnique is not for sale » and supported by Parisian elected officials from different sides, and on the other, LVMH, to whom Polytechnique has entrusted the project management of the site, and the new director of the school, freshly appointed, Laura Chaubard.
The latter, invited on BFM Paris on Tuesday, strongly supported the project management, namely the LVMH group, affirming that “the Ecole Polytechnique, the leading engineering school in France, must today consolidate its positioning among the very best scientific schools in the world, through the excellence of its training, research and innovation. This project fits entirely into this strategy since it must provide the school with a Parisian location, on the historic site of the Sainte-Geneviève mountain which it occupied until 1976.”
Which did not alert the members of the collective more than that. “The president of Polytechnique reacts to defend the project of her establishment. She is in her role, we can hardly expect anything else hot. We must keep in mind that this is a major project that involves many stakeholders (patron, ministries, Paris town hall, alumni association). A decision to change the project can only be made after discussion with everyone. », assures Matthieu Lequesne, contacted Wednesday by 20 minutes.
Construction site stopped or construction in progress?
However, last Thursday, opponents of this pharaonic 30 million euro project protested for a definitive abandonment of the project on Place Jacqueline-de-Romilly, affirming bailiff’s findings to support that 20 minutes was able to consult, that the construction site had been at a standstill since 2022. This is formally contested by LVMH, which also noted the resumption of work on September 18 by another bailiff, whose report was also transmitted to 20 minutes. “The work is anything but at a standstill. On Tuesday, we put up scaffolding but on such a complex site, every day different things happen, not necessarily visible from the street.” The group regrets “being constantly challenged by a handful of people who only represent themselves”.
He claims that “all processes were respected. The project was always presented in complete transparency, we did not arrive overnight.” If the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) of Île-de-France, at the request of “Polytechnique is not for sale”, indicated in an email, that 20 minutes was able to obtain, that “the excavation operation which began in the summer of 2022 (archaeological support for the preparatory work in the gardens of the ministry and in the Navarre gallery)” was interrupted “at the fall 2022, at the request of the project owner.
Excavations halted… for now?
The Drac d’Île-de-France also specifies that the excavation operation has not been completed and that the report has not been written, the operation having been interrupted. For LVMH, “the excavations were first carried out under the Jardin Carré, property of the Ministry of Higher Education. Then we asked to interrupt when we went to the Boite à Claps courtyard so as not to have to uproot the tree straight away.” The majestic old lime tree of the courtyard, at the heart of the demonstrators’ demands on Thursday, would therefore be the cause. “As we have not yet finalized the studies on the future of this tree, we did not want to uproot it. There are several studies to see what we can do with him, if he is healthy to be moved, if so how and where. In short, these are things that take time,” adds LVMH, which assures that once the issue of the lime tree has been resolved, it will request an end to the obligatory excavations.
A week ago, “it was a symbolic alert action,” confided Matthieu Lequesne of the “Polytechnique is not for sale” collective. “Our gathering allowed us to put the subject on the table. The reactions from local residents and former students that we have been collecting for several days allow us to be optimistic, this project arouses a lot of incomprehension and indignation,” he added yesterday Wednesday. Which leaves LVMH perplexed. “This is not a project for LVMH but for the Polytechnic school. We’re not going to put a big logo, we’re doing sponsorship and that’s it. A handful of students in the collective do not agree with the ideas we represent about the economy and are positioning themselves against us. Except that we are entering into an ideological debate and not a debate on the substance of the project,” Bernard Arnault’s group is still surprised. Stop or else, no one knows, for the moment, who will decide.