Security, transport, budget: Emmanuel Macron takes stock on Tuesday March 14 of the challenges of the Paris Olympic Games, 500 days from the start of the biggest sporting event in the world.

The Head of State received for lunch at the Élysée the partner companies – 30 in total for the time being – which will contribute up to 1.2 billion euros to the organization of the Olympic Games.

He will also meet with Tony Estanguet, head of the organizing committee, and Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the opening ceremony which promises to be unprecedented with a parade on the Seine.

Accompanied by the Ministers of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, he will then meet half a thousand officials involved in the organization of the Games at 4.30 p.m. at the Paris prefecture.

The president "wants to make sure that everyone is at work" and that "possible pitfalls are known and anticipated", underlines the Elysée.

600,000 spectators along the Seine

For the first time in Olympic history, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium, but outside, on the Seine, in the heart of the capital, an unprecedented security challenge.

On July 26, 2024 at 8:24 p.m. sharp, more than a hundred boats carrying delegations of athletes will descend the river, from the Pont d'Austerlitz to the Eiffel Tower.

Six kilometers under the eyes of some 600,000 spectators, according to the current gauge.

“We have learned all the lessons from the events at the Stade de France”, assured the Minister of Sports on Tuesday on France Inter after the fiasco of the final of the Football Champions League in May 2022 in Saint-Denis, at the gates of Paris. .

"We want to show the best of France (...). There is no infeasibility (...) but there are still adaptations to be made", for his part conceded Tony Estanguet in a interview with AFP.

"Extreme vigilance" about transport

Chaos in transport is undoubtedly the other nightmare of the organizers, the system of the Paris region having multiplied the signs of dysfunction in recent months.

Will the airports be able to handle the millions of expected visitors?

Will the necessary adaptations to the mobility of people with disabilities be satisfactory?

Will there be strikes, which many foreigners consider a French specialty?

An impression further reinforced in recent days by images of trash cans piling up in the streets of Paris against a backdrop of conflict over pension reform.

Shortage of bus drivers and opening up to competition from buses by 2025 are also straining the social climate, while a political showdown is being played out between the government and the president of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, member of the right-wing opposition, who manages some of the transport involved.

The state recommends "extreme vigilance" on the subject.

New boss of the RATP, the Paris transport authority, the former Prime Minister Jean Castex, who was interministerial delegate to the Olympic Games, has the Olympics well in mind.

On sports and housing infrastructure, "we are on schedule, everything will be delivered between December 2023 and spring", tempers Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on the other hand.

"We are on the way to success"

Based on ticketing revenue, sponsors and a contribution from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the budget of the Organizing Committee (96% of private origin) is also the object of all attention while the initial envelopes explode traditionally in these kinds of events and that inflation complicates the situation.

This budget increased by 10%, to 4.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, for a total cost of 8.8 billion euros, including the budget of Solideo, the delivery company for the works. Olympics.

"The costs are absolutely contained", nevertheless considers the minister.

It is almost certain, however, that the Seine, which has been prohibited for swimming since 1923, should serve as a framework for open water swimming and triathlon events.

"We are on the way to succeed," Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

With AFP

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