“There are obviously plans B, plans C, etc..”for the organization of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, scheduled for the Seine on July 26, 2024, assured the Head of State on Wednesday on France 5.
While for weeks the government and organizers have been saying that there is no plan B, Mr. Macron clarified that it would be activated “in the event of a potential threat”, “if you have a rise in international or regional tensions, if you have a series of attacks” like in November 2015, he explained.
“It is an event which will take place with the best standards of safety and support. And so we plan for all scenarios and we will adapt to all scenarios. But that shouldn’t stop us from dreaming. And I have good hope that we can dream until the end”assured Mr. Macron.
The question of security during the opening ceremony was revived by the attack committed on December 2 near the Eiffel Tower by a radicalized Islamist who killed a German-Filipino tourist and injured two other people.
The president of the Les Républicains party Eric Ciotti suggested, on December 9, to abandon organizing the opening ceremony on the Seine, because security might not be guaranteed there.
Before him, at the end of October, the former judoka and ex-minister of sports, David Douillet had already expressed reservations: “If the day before, the lights are crimson red regarding the risks of attack, we will need a plan B for the opening ceremony”he said to La Tribune Sunday.
The former boss of the judicial police, elected by the Republicans of the Ile-de-France region, Frédéric Péchenard, also insisted on the need for a plan B, saying he “more worried since October 7”date of the Hamas attack in Israel.
Paris 2024: the number of spectators for the opening ceremony will be set in spring 2024
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told Parisian that the number of spectators who will be welcomed for the opening ceremony will be finalized in spring 2024. The latest estimates that were on the table were for 100,000 spectators on the lower platforms, with paid access, and around 300,000 on the upper platforms , free access.
The figure was not ” stopped (…). There are entry and exit requirements to manage, the second-hand booksellers along the line… We are in discussions with them. Some are in strategic locations, where there is fear that people [ne] accumulate »explained Mr. Nuñez. “This is why the gauge is not yet defined. There are still too many hazards”.
However, the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, assured on December 4 that relocating the opening ceremony was not ” a hypothesis “ currently considered. “We don’t have a plan B, we have a plan A in which there are several plans B”she said at the microphone of France Inter.
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