Laurent Wauquiez is very enthusiastic about the idea of hosting the 2030 Olympic Games, promising “sober Games” to those who are worried about the economic and environmental impact of the project: “It’s a formidable challenge, a formidable dream, it is something that corresponds to the DNA of our region,” he declared during a press conference, as a preamble to the plenary assembly of the Regional Council. The application is jointly submitted by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Aura) and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur (Paca) regions. They will submit their final file on November 7 and will defend it before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on November 21 in Paris. Sweden and Switzerland are also candidates, unlike Sapporo (Japan), which has officially thrown in the towel. The IOC’s decision is expected in 2024.
“Our region is bathed in this heritage of Olympism,” continued Mr. Wauquiez, recalling that the Games have already been held in Chamonix (1924), Grenoble (1968) and Albertville (1992). In this conception of the “first sustainable Olympics”, the “French Alps” project plans to “rely on existing infrastructure”, built during previous editions.
A collective of citizens and associations questioned, in a column recently published by Le Monde, the “legitimacy of the Winter Games in a context of global warming” and called for a referendum to be held. The leading opposition group in the region, the Ecologists are not opposed in principle to holding the Games but are demanding strong guarantees on their impact. The group plans to table an amendment on Friday during the deliberation in the plenary assembly on the candidacy for the Olympics. He will ask the region to respect, in its application file, the “zero net artificialization” law (ZAN), a system which aims to stop the concreteization of soils by 2050, from which Mr. Wauquiez wishes to withdraw.