Paris Olympics 2024: Opening ceremony safety concerns causing sleepless nights for organisers

In exactly two years, 600,000 people are expected to line the riverbanks of the Seine for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. But there are big problems.

Two years from today, 162 open boats are due to carry athletes and officials through central Paris, watched by 600,000 people lining the riverbanks along four miles of the Seine.

President Macron’s grand plan for a spectacular waterborne opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics is said, however, to be causing sleepless nights for the organisers in a countdown dogged by inflation, spiralling costs and delays with city centre athletics venues.

Aware that the Paris Games will shape his second term, Macron yesterday chaired a ministerial session to re-energise preparations, a month after France’s capabilities were thrown into doubt by the disastrous police handling of the Champions’ League final at the Stade de France.

The Seine pageant has created a security quandary, with police estimating that 7,000 officers will be needed to guard the riverbanks and grandstands.

France's President Emmanuel Macron with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, left, and French Foreign and European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna. Picture: Lewis Joly / POOL / AFP

“We are not ready at all. If a drone drops grenades on to the crowds below, we do not know how we will neutralise them,” a security official said.

“It is the magnitude of the crowds which is the problem.”

After the football fiasco, Macron last week appointed Laurent Nunez, a former junior minister and national intelligence co-ordinator, to replace Didier Lallement, the controversial Paris police chief.

“You will be the prefect of police in charge of the Olympics and the entire force must be geared towards that,” Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister, told Nunez.

Macron’s Olympic session, attended by Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister, and 11 cabinet members, heard claims from Darmanin that the games’ security needs would be fully met. Recruitment of police and auxiliaries would be stepped up in the next two years.

Last week, a draft report from the Court of Accounts, the state auditors, warned that time was running short to deal with security, for which police need far more personnel. It suggested scaling down the regatta, which was “giving the organisers cold sweats”, according to Le Monde.

An artist’s impression of how the Paris Olympics opening ceremony could look. Picture: Florian Hulleu / Paris 2024 / AFP)

Tension over the organisation was illustrated by Macron’s failure to invite Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, or Valerie Pecresse, president of the Ile-de-France regional council, which includes Paris, to yesterday’s (Monday’s) session. The women, who ran against Macron in April’s presidential election, made their anger known.

“Macron is trying to take over absolute control of the Games,” said a member of Hidalgo’s team.

The auditors said “strong, difficult and bold decisions” were needed to control the rising cost of hosting, for which euros 8 billion has been budgeted.

Sporting federations are also worried over the slow preparation of the Games sites, 95 per cent of which will be existing stadiums and other venues.

Another Macron promise under question is the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in time for the 13 million visitors and 15,000 athletes who are expected.

Jean-Louis Georgelin, the retired general heading the reconstruction of the cathedral, which was ravaged by fire in 2019, acknowledged on Saturday that meeting the deadline would be difficult.

“2024 is a target under stress. It is rigorous and complicated, but it is above all an aim that serves to mobilise everyone,” he said.

Originally published as Paris Olympics 2024: Opening ceremony safety concerns causing sleepless nights for organisers