Phoenix 24
A protocol decision has become a leadership crisis at one of the world’s most visited monuments.
Paris
Patrick Branco Ruivo, director general of the company that operates the Eiffel Tower, has announced that he will leave his position at the end of 2026 following a controversy over the exclusion of female employees during the visit of a conservative Hindu religious group earlier this month.
Branco Ruivo has led the Société d’exploitation de la tour Eiffel since 2018. His position became increasingly difficult after workers revealed that female employees had been removed from certain areas, reassigned or replaced by male colleagues during the visit of members of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha movement.
The incident triggered a strike that forced the Eiffel Tower to close for an entire day on September 7. Employees denounced what they described as the invisibilization of women on the basis of sex, arguing that professional instructions had been adapted to accommodate a visitor request that should never have been accepted.
Two investigations were subsequently launched at the initiative of Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire. According to the tower’s operating company, the internal review identified several failures in the organization of protocol visits and concluded that those shortcomings contributed directly to the exclusion of female personnel. The company described the situation as unacceptable.
The controversy reached beyond workplace management because the Eiffel Tower functions simultaneously as a tourist attraction, public symbol and institution closely associated with the identity of Paris. The operating company is 99 percent owned by the City of Paris and 1 percent by the metropolitan authority, making questions of governance and public values especially sensitive.
The scale of the institution also raises the stakes. The Eiffel Tower employs more than 400 people, receives around 6.7 million visitors annually and generates approximately €156 million in revenue. A management failure inside such a visible organization can therefore produce consequences extending far beyond internal labor relations.
Branco Ruivo’s departure does not erase the structural questions raised by the episode. The more important issue is how public institutions should respond when requests based on religious or cultural preferences conflict with equality rules governing employees.
The controversy has transformed a protocol decision into a debate about institutional responsibility, gender equality and the limits of accommodation in public spaces.
Truth is structure, not noise.