2024-02-15 19:12:39
By refusing to move the second-hand booksellers’ boxes from the quays of the Seine in anticipation of the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, Emmanuel Macron intends to defuse a tense situation for several months, while outlining the modalities for lowering the gauge of the show inaugural Olympic Games.
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Dfrom the perspective of the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Gamesthe authorities had considered in recent months the dismantling of part of the famous second-hand booksellers’ boxes which line several portions of the quays of the Seine.
For security reasons linked to the expected presence of tens of thousands of spectators on the low quays and high quays of the river crossing the capital, some 428 of the 932 green boxes had to be temporarily moved. This project, however, sparked a wave of criticism among public opinion and among local elected officials worried about the fate reserved for second-hand booksellersthe latter also showing concern about possible damage to the boxes when they are removed.
However, the Head of State finally decided to reverse course, renouncing in fact to such a maneuver likely to increase distrust of the Games.
Also, as reported by the daily ” The Parisian “this Tuesday February 13, 2024:
The President of the Republic asked the Minister of the Interior and the Prefect of Police of Paris that all book sellers be preserved, and that none of them be forced to be moved for the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Noting that no consensual and reassuring solution could be identified with these actors, he expresses his attention to them considering that this is a living heritage of the capital.
The decision has already been welcomed by the brand new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, who is none other than the Mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, but also a fierce opponent of the current Mayor of the ” City of Lights “Anne Hidalgo.
The two women – who faced each other during the 2020 municipal elections – could also meet again during a 2026 election which will inevitably be marked by the repercussions of the organization of the Games.
But beyond the political question and the problem specific to second-hand booksellers, the renunciation expressed by Emmanuel Macron above all initiates the modalities of revising the gauge of the Opening Ceremony.
First estimated at 600,000 spectators, the latter was then mentioned below 500,000, even 400,000some leaders pleading for an even more drastic reduction for the sake of security and management of transport flows, with critics even going so far as to ask for a return of the Ceremony in a more traditional setting, namely the Stadium enclosure. from France to Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis).
In finethe Parisian capacity should reach 320,000 people as recently exposed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
During an interview on the television show “Telematin” on France 2, the tenant of Place Beauvau had stated in this sense at the end of January:
The idea is that there will be 100,000 people on the lower quays, that is to say the quays who will watch the Ceremony. These are paid tickets.
There are more than 220,000 people on the high quays, that is to say those who will approach the Seine.
And then there are all those who live and who will be able to rent, have evenings, along the Seine, from Bercy to the Trocadéro, with a great welcome from the Heads of State and all the delegations at the Trocadéro..
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Obviously, this new scheme can partly explain the renunciation regarding the dismantling of the second-hand booksellers’ boxes whose location could have constituted a threat to the security of the Opening Ceremony, the Paris Police Prefect having had the opportunity in the fall of 2023 to express its fears about the possible concealment of weapons or explosives.
With the maintenance of the boxes, the absence of stands in the sectors concerned along the Seine should be established, leading therefore to a tightening of the system dedicated to spectators, knowing that the overall progress of the Ceremony must for its part be hold around unprecedented logistics over a particularly vast area going from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Pont d’Iéna.
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