Paris.-French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France is “ready” to host the 2024 Paris Olympics, four days before the start of the major global sporting event.
“We are ready and we will be ready throughout the Games,” Macron said during a visit to the Olympic Village in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
Four days before the unprecedented opening ceremony of Paris-2024 on the banks of the Seine, Macron had previously supervised the “most confidential” security elements with his Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
“We have been working on these Games for years and we are at the beginning of a decisive week that will see the opening ceremony on Friday” and the development of the Games “one hundred years after” the last ones held in the French capital, he said.
The organisation is putting the finishing touches to the opening ceremony, with two rehearsals of the river parade scheduled for Monday and Wednesday, before the big day on Friday.
The sunshine and the weather forecasts of the last few days have given the organisation a respite after the nightmare of endless rain in June. At that time, the quality of the water in the Seine and its flow did not allow swimming, which set off all the alarms.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach also visited the Olympic Village, where thousands of athletes and officials are arriving and where up to 14,500 are expected at the height of the Games.
The complex, which consists of 40 low-rise housing blocks, has been built using innovative construction techniques that use low-carbon concrete, water recycling and reused materials.
The aim was also to avoid the use of air conditioning, using a natural cooling system, but some Olympic delegations have requested some 2,500 portable cooling devices for their athletes.
The Olympic Games also represent a boost for the Seine-Saint-Denis department, home to the Olympic Village and the main athletics stadium for Paris 2024, one of the poorest areas in France.
Macron promised that this area would not be forgotten after the Olympic Games. “I will return after the Games to see the legacy with you and see how life has changed,” he added during his visit to the Olympic Village.
After two months focused on the political situation, from the European elections to the legislative elections that shook France, the centre-right president is back in his Olympic uniform, although controversies continue to loom over the country.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said that “the Israeli delegation is welcome in France” in response to controversial remarks by a leftist MP who called for “mobilisations” against the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
On Saturday, during a rally in support of the Palestinian people, French deputy of La France Insoumise (LFI) Thomas Portes said that “Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics.”
But after the wave of indignation, the MP clarified his statements and spoke of a “double standard” with regard to Russia, whose athletes will participate under a neutral flag and will be absent from the opening parade due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022.
Centre-right Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin accused him of “putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes” with a “stink of anti-Semitism”.
Israeli athletes are already “in the greatest danger at the Olympic Games,” said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), who recalled the 11 “killed by Palestinian terrorists” in Munich in 1972.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will be in Paris for the opening of the Games, his office announced Sunday.
The Interior Ministry told AFP it would make “adjustments” to security arrangements for some delegations, including those from Israel, the United States and Iran.
In April, a security source explained that some, such as those of Israeli and American athletes, would have their “own” means to ensure their safety.SWI.
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2024-07-27 11:37:26
