So far so close… Two years from the opening of the 2024 games, the obstacle course has begun, title Le Figaro. Just 24 months from their opening, the Olympics stand like a hedge at the break of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term. And the executive will have to cross this hurdle without tripping, or dragging the reputation of the country in the event of a fall, warns Le Figaro.
With some 13 million visitors expected on some forty competition sites and more than 3 billion potential viewers, the bet to be taken up is therefore colossal. Popular and festive, the Olympic Games are also financially greedy, point Release. The editorialist of Freed warns from the outset not to want to play the killjoy: ” Not that we are hostile to this event which, we hope, will look like a huge popular festival bringing together in the same jubilation the inhabitants of Paris, its outskirts, the rest of France and the millions of visitors strangers. But all the same, the current politico-economic context, weighed down by the war in Ukraine, risks weighing heavily on the progress of the works. “.
And to emphasize: Two years from the competition, the budget would have increased from 6.6 to 8.3 billion euros and we are talking about a total bill which could be around 10 billion euros. “. So certainly, the budget overrun is consubstantial with the organization of the Olympic Games, but all the same, insists Releasegiven the economic difficulties that are looming, excluding the Olympics, and the mass of public services in which France will have to invest in the years to come – hospitals and education in mind – it would be wise for this simple overrun cost does not turn into a cost explosion.
An Olympic and Paralympic council organized yesterday at the Élysée
” There is no concern in my eyes, but I want to have regular site meetings “says the Head of State in an interview with the sports daily The Team. And to spin the sporting metaphor: “ It’s a time trial that begins. For me, we are on schedule but every day that separates us from the Games must be a useful day to succeed “.
On the financial side, there will be no OJ tax. ” The Games must finance the Games “says Emmanuel Macron. On the ticketing side, we have endeavored to have reasonable prices, says the Head of State. The first tickets will cost €24. The State will also buy 400,000 tickets which it will distribute to young people and volunteers who contribute to the Games and sport in France.
On the security side, Emmanuel Macron asked that the Ministry of the Interior make projections to ensure the Games in complete safety over their duration, while being able to deal with events elsewhere in France which could occur in parallel, such as large fires or a terrorist attack.
As for the opening ceremony of the Olympics on the Seine, it will be a small organizational miracle, thinks the French president: ” We will finalize the artistic work at the start of the school year by recruiting an artistic director, a scenographer “.
Emmanuel Macron traveling to Cameroon
The World Africa publishes a column entitled: Emmanuel Macron must, in the name of France, recognize the war in Cameroon “. A group of personalities believes that ” it is high time for the French State to fully assume its responsibilities ” in the ” fierce repression of the 1950s and 1960s “.
Emmanuel Macron therefore has an appointment with history in Yaoundé. ” Will he be the first French president to officially recognize this real war and to lift one of the last great post-war French taboos? ? “, wonder these French and Cameroonian intellectuals who sign this forum, to be found on the site of the World Africa.