against a backdrop of social tensions, the Parisian route of the torch relay unveiled

Paris is preparing to light its Olympic flame. The host city of the next Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) presented, on Monday July 3, the details of the route of the Olympic flame in the capital, a few days after the announcement by the Organizing Committee of the Games Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) of the general layout. The announcement was made during a press briefing at the Carnavalet Museum, in the midst of tensions since the death of Nahel M., a 17-year-old young man killed on Tuesday June 27 in Nanterre by a police officer. The social and security issue of the Olympic relay was at the heart of the questions.

“I hope the climate will be calmer in a year, but we are preparing for any eventuality”, assured Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport and the JOP. The security and organizational challenge of the event (from July 26 to August 11, 2024 for the Olympic Games, from August 28 to September 8, 2024 for the Paralympic Games) promises to be significant. More than a hundred torchbearers per day, around thirty “protectors” of the flame, all the arrondissements mobilized and isolated points to rally (Roland-Garros, the Buttes-Chaumont, Vincennes)… Paris saw big for the first act of “his” Olympic Games.

Among the sites highlighted, several have recently been the scene of clashes between rioters and police. “ The social landscape is worrying right now, but […] do not confuse everything. There is a tradition of Olympic truces and this parenthesis is fundamental”assured Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy in charge of urban planning, Greater Paris, relations with the districts.

The pre-Beijing 2008 precedent

However, there are precedents for social movements in the capital. In April 2008, before the Beijing Olympics, the route of the flame was interrupted in Paris, due to numerous protests by Tibetans. The last relays had been removed, and the flame had ended its journey in a bus. To avoid reproducing this catastrophic scenario, a reinforced security system is being developed: “We work closely with the police headquarters and the district town hallsadds Emmanuel Grégoire. The sequence of July 14, in the middle of the national holiday ceremony, must be refined, just like the secret scenography of July 26, for the opening ceremony. »

If Anne Hidalgo measures the “challenge”she assures us that the flame is also an opportunity to “federate” : “Violence has no place. Sports yes. We want Games in line with ecological, social and democratic challenges”, adds the mayor of Paris.

In addition to security, many questions remain unanswered. The precise route of each segment, the choice of Parisian torchbearers, the police forces mobilized, the activities around the passages of the flame, remain to be determined. The first milestones have nevertheless been laid.

The unknown of the ultimate relay and the Olympic cauldron

On July 14, the relay will set off from the Champs-Elysées to reach the Town Hall, passing by “emblematic places of the revolutionary history of the city, of national and local power”, we detail on the side of the organization. The Sorbonne, the Pantheon, the Senate, the Louvre and the Place de la République will be on the program.

The next day, the neighborhoods will be honoured. The torchbearers will set off from the Porte de la Chapelle to reach Belleville, as well as the Butte-aux-Cailles or Buttes-Chaumont districts, passing through the working-class Goutte-d’Or district. “It is not the city of the very rich and the very poor.assures the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. The flame will pass through popular neighborhoods, on which we have relied heavily over the past fifteen years. We want to involve all the inhabitants in the celebration. »

As for the outcome of the course, the mystery remains unsolved. If we already know that the last torch relay will take place between Seine-Saint-Denis and Paris, passing through the Bassin de la Villette, the Cojop has not yet revealed where the lighting of the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony on the Seine. Its president, Tony Estanguet, limited himself to declaring: “It will be the surprise of July 26, 2024 and the last segment. »