Macron seeks to quell security and budgetary concerns over Paris Olympics
French President Emmanuel Macron met senior ministers on Monday to address conerns over preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympics almost two years to the day before the event opens.
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The meeting at the Elysee Palace included key ministers such as Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera - as well as the head of the Paris organising committee, the three-time Olympic slalom canoe champion Tony Estanguet.
"We are two years to the day from the start of the Games. Now it's really a race against the clock," Macron said in an interview with L'Equipe sports daily published Tuesday.
The Olympics organising committee COJO has a budget of €4 billion, as does its partner organisation SOLIDEO, which is charged with building the peripheral infrastructure.
But rising inflation means savings have to be made and so far not enough sponsors have been found to plug the gaps.
"The budget was based on hypothetical inflation at 1.4 percent, so obviously now that we're close to 5.8 percent, an adjustment needs to be made," Oudea-Castera told the press.
"Everything is very tight concerning the budget," said a source close to the issue who asked not to be named, adding the extent of the challenge would be clear in the autumn.
No Olympic tax
"I reaffirmed a simple principle: there will be no Olympics tax. The Games must finance the Games," Macron insisted in his L'Equipe interview.
Macron also met International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach after the gathering, the Elysee said.
Organisers also revealed their official slogan -- "Games Wide Open" -- released alongside a video promising the Olympics and Paralympics would be "faster", "higher" and "stronger" -- as well as "more inclusive, more brotherly, more beautiful."
A total of 13 million tickets will be sold for the two events, with nearly half of tickets reserved for the public set to be sold at less than €50 ($51).
The state "will buy 400,000 tickets which it will distribute to young people and schoolchildren, especially those under 16," Macron told L'Equipe.
Outside the opening and closing ceremonies, prices for events will range from €24 to a maximum of €950, organisers said in a press statement.
Fans are invited to enter a draw for tickets from December. Packages comprising tickets for three separate events will be available from €72 and will go on sale from February.
Massive recruitment for security
With 13 million visitors expected and 15,000 athletes competing, the level of anxiety over the massive security operation at the Olympics is high.
This is especially so as many events are to be held in the centre of Paris, around the Eiffel Tower and the central Place de la Concorde, which is close to the Elysee Palace.
In addition to the French security forces, more than 20,000 private security agents need to be hired.
"We do not have the numbers," Bernard Thibault, a member of the organising committee told French news agency AFP in mid-April.
The shortage of private security staff is a throwback to London in 2012 and Tokyo last year when both host cities were forced to fall back on the military.
"We are not ready at all," a government source told AFP, referring to the security needed for the grand opening ceremony due to take place along the Seine river.
"If a drone drops grenades onto the crowds below we do not know how we will neutralise them."
Cyber threats
The authorities have also prioritised preventing cyber-attacks as the Olympics has been a high profile target for years.
According to the organisers, several hundred cyber-investigators from the French Interior Ministry will be keeping an eye on potential attacks.
An Olympic intelligence centre has also been set up.
The showcase athletics and swimming events are due to be held in Seine-Saint-Denis north of Paris, one of the lowest-income areas in France, with a cluster of events in the centre of the capital.
Sailing events will take place at the other end of the country in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, while the surfing will be in the Pacific territory of French Polynesia, on the other side of the world.
(with newswires)
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