Emmanuel Macron assured Thursday that the organization of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the Seine remained “the preferred scenario”, despite threats of attacks and Russian fake news. The President of the Republic inaugurated the Saint-Denis Olympic aquatic center on Thursday, which will host the synchronized swimming, diving and water polo events of the Paris Games. The tenant of the Elysée is launching a general “site review” just over a hundred days before the global meeting, which will begin on July 26.
“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,” he said. he told journalists who questioned him about the opening ceremony, while the Vigipirate plan has just been raised to its maximum level after the attack in Moscow on March 22, claimed by the Islamic State group.
Site reviews
Conceding that France had been under terrorist threat for “several years”, he however added that the French authorities were preparing “fallback scenarios”. For the first time, Paris is planning an opening ceremony outside a stadium, which is therefore very difficult to secure. The athletes must take their place in barges which will descend the Seine against the mythical backdrop of Parisian monuments.
In terms of threats, Emmanuel Macron also said he was certain that Russia was targeting the organization of the Olympic Games, particularly “in informational terms”, suggesting that France would not be ready for the event.
Because with just over 100 days to go before the opening, preparations are accelerating. On April 17, “we will be 100 days from the start of the Olympic Games. So from next week, the president asked his ministers to be on the ground” to “conduct site reviews”, “ensure that everything is in line” with the schedule, his entourage announced.