The Seine or not the Seine? It’s only April and the drama is already in full swing, with conflicting comments from both sides. The organization of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the river is the “main plan” and “very probable”, assured Tuesday the president of the organizing committee Tony Estanguet, the day after declarations by Emmanuel Macron evoking solutions fallback at the Trocadéro and the Stade de France.
“Today the really main and very probable plan is to organize this ceremony on the Seine”, declared on RFI Tony Estanguet, interviewed from Olympia in Greece, a few hours before the traditional lighting ceremony of the flame Olympic. “The President of the Republic was very clear yesterday, the main objective is to achieve a very beautiful, absolutely unique opening ceremony, the first time that it will be held outside a stadium, in the center of Paris on the Seine “, he said.
Plan A, nothing but plan A for Anne Hid-A-lgo
“We are working on a plan A and in plan A, there is also all the confidence we have in the professionalism of the teams working on security,” declared the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, present in Greece. “France is a large country which organized” Euro 2016 and COP 21 “just after the attacks (of November 2015), it was also a challenge,” she recalled.
Monday morning, the President of the Republic tried to reassure that this ceremony would take place, while outlining “plans B and C” in the event of a terrorist threat. He had already assured that alternative scenarios were being considered. For the first time, he began to detail them, citing in particular the Stade de France, which had until now been excluded by the authorities.
Plans B, C, D…
The hypothesis of the Stade de France, which also hosts Olympic rugby events before the opening of the Olympic Games, would be a purely ceremonial ceremony, without the artistic dimension, to officially pronounce the opening of the Olympic Games, according to sources close to the matter.
The boss of Cojo also welcomed the lighting of the Olympic flame on Tuesday morning: “It’s a very important moment, it’s the beginning of this adventure. » Swimmer Laure Manaudou succeeded in Greece the very first torchbearer, Greek rower Stefanos Ntouskos, as the first French torchbearer of the Paris Olympics. The flame will arrive in France on May 8 in Marseille.