Proposed Triangle tower in Paris by Herzog & de Meuron. (BBC)

Bravo! The city council of Paris has voted narrowly to reject the proposal for a skyscraper in the city center. Le Tour Triangle, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, lost an 83 to 78 vote. Mayor Hidalgo, a Socialist, immediately challenged its validity on grounds that some of those who voted against it revealed their vote to the public. It does not seem to me that revealing the vote one cast oneself after the tally constitutes a violation of the right to a secret ballot. But this is France, not America. The fight is surely not over – the plug uglies won’t give up easily because of a mere vote – but a victory is a victory and a good excuse to lift a glass of Champagne and smooth some of the furrows on our worried brows. Bravo!

First report from  correspondent Mary Campbell Gallagher, of SOS Paris:

THIS JUST IN FROM PARIS. George Orwell, where are you? Having lost today’s City Council vote on the Tour Triangle, 83-78, Mayor Annie Hidalgo rushed to the Tribunal Administratif, saying the court should annul the vote because skyscraper-opponents made their ballots public, and that is “undemocratic.”

Apparently the meaning of “democratic” is freely open to re-definition by the mayor’s pro-skyscraper Socialist majority. Polls have long shown that Parisians reject skyscrapers, by at least 64 per cent. But the Socialist response has been: we politicians know better. I suppose they would call that democratic.

If you have not already signed the petition, please do so now, and send it on to your friends. http://bit.ly/NoParisSkyscrapers