President Emmanuel Macron assured Thursday that his position had not changed regarding the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the Seine despite the threat of attack. “The preferred scenario, the one that we are preparing, the one that we assume, the one that we want, is obviously the one that has been planned with all the organizers and the details of which will be revealed in due time,” declared the Head of State on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new aquatic center in Saint-Denis.
“We must take responsibility for this opening ceremony,” insisted Emmanuel Macron, conceding that France had “unfortunately been under the terrorist threat for several years”. “We will be ready,” he added, recalling that the Vigipirate system had been raised after the attack in Moscow on March 22 claimed by the Islamic State. “We are preparing several scenarios (…), if the threat were to evolve, if we consider that the circumstances require it, we have fallback scenarios,” he explained without detailing them.
The president also assured that he had “no doubt” about the fact that Russia is targeting the Olympics, particularly “in informational terms”. “Force of soul, self-confidence, a relationship with the truth are the strength of democracies and great nations,” he added.