“Answers” will be provided “in November” following a defense council on the question of spectator gauges on the high quays of the Seine in Paris during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in 2024, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said on Thursday.
For several months, the question of the number of spectators able to attend the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, for the first time in history outside a stadium and on the Seine, has been the subject of negotiations between the town hall of Paris, the organizing committee and the police headquarters. The number was initially 500,000 free places, with 100,000 paid places on the lower platforms. But this figure has still not been made official. “We will have answers around the Head of State as part of a next Defense Council in November,” assured Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on BFM-TV, when questioned on this subject.
Since the Arras attack, where a teacher was killed, the terrorist threat has been raised in France, and a war was triggered by an unprecedented attack launched by Hamas in Israel on October 7, a context which raised new security fears around the Olympics. On Sunday, former Sports Minister David Douillet pleaded for a “plan B” for the opening ceremony for security reasons linked to the current geopolitical context. A hypothesis that the head of the organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, has ruled out, assuring Tuesday that “security conditions” will be there.
The Minister of Sports also confirmed on BFM-TV that the ceremony will take place “well” on the Seine. “Are we paying attention to context? The answer is obviously yes,” added the minister. “Are there adjustment variables that we are working on? The answer is obviously yes. It would be irresponsible not to do so. But we want to keep the principle of this opening ceremony,” she said. “No burying your head in the sand, no catastrophism either. Terrorists must not prevent us from living, from celebrating our civilization,” added Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. On Wednesday, during a hearing in the Senate, the minister postponed until “early 2024” the question of possible recourse to the French army to compensate for possible future shortfalls in private security.
