This is the Arlesian of the debate on the Olympic Games: what if the opening ceremony on July 26 was finally transferred to the Stade de France? To all observers, the Saint-Denis enclosure appears to be the natural fallback solution, an obvious one in the event of a security threat on the Seine. And yet. According to our information, in the daily meetings which are currently agitating the State authorities, at the Elysée, at the Ministry of the Interior as well as at the police headquarters, the Stade de France no longer constitutes anything more than a “plan C”, at best. Emmanuel Macron himself indicated this this Monday April 15 on BFMTV. “We have a ceremony that we are preparing which would be limited to the Trocadéro, for example,” warned the President of the Republic. Adding all the same: “Even who would return to the Stade de France, because that’s what is classically done.”
It is according to this order of preference that alternatives to the Seine are currently imagined. Firstly due to a technical complication, recently detected by government strategists: the Stade de France is not completely free on the dates indicated. The evening before the ceremony, July 25, the “grand stadium” hosts… the end of the group matches then the quarter-finals of the men’s rugby sevens, an event for which the French have hopes of a medal. Between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Antoine Dupont’s teammates could play a tough match.
In the event of an opening ceremony the following day, in the same location, the installation of the equipment could only take place from 11 p.m. A time frame that is far too short, experts believe, as the recent history of the Olympic Games tends to confirm: whether in Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, London and even in Beijing, in 2008, the first team sports matches – often the first day of football groups, traditionally organized the day before the official launch of the Olympics – have always been relocated to stadiums different from the location of the opening ceremony.
Trocadéro, real plan B
There remains the possibility of transferring the rugby sevens matches to another venue, but this hypothesis would itself create several complications, for the sports delegations but also for the spectators, whose tickets would thus have to be replaced… or refunded.
In any case, Emmanuel Macron expressed his preference for an “open place”, allowing the initial promise of a unique ceremony and unlike any other to be respected. The Place du Trocadéro appears in several respects to be a suitable alternative. It is already planned as the place of conclusion of the sports parade on the Seine. Bringing the ceremony there allows you to use part of the planned security system. The dignitaries – Paris is expecting some 120 sovereigns and heads of state or government – in particular, had to go to the Trocadéro by bus anyway, from Place de l’Etoile. The police also have experience securing the Trocadéro, the site of numerous demonstrations during the year.
Emmanuel Macron could thus be proud of having enabled the first opening ceremony “in town” in the history of the Olympic Games. However, only part of the initial promise would be respected: it was a question of offering the public a unique “wandering” through Paris. A promenade that no longer exists, replaced by a more classic “static” parade on a square.