A plan B, and even a plan C. In the event of a terrorist threat, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, scheduled for the Seine on July 26, could be “limited to the Trocadéro”, or even “repatriated to the Stade de France”, declared this Monday April 15 Emmanuel Macron on BFMTV and RMC.
“This opening ceremony” along the Seine, “is a first in the world. We can do it and we will do it,” said the president in an interview to mark the countdown to 100 days of OJ. But “there are plans B and even plans C”, “and we prepare them in parallel”.
The Head of State had already assured that fallback scenarios were being considered. For the first time, he began to detail them. “We will do a real-time analysis” of the risks, he added. “We have a ceremony that we are preparing which would be limited to the Trocadéro for example, and therefore we would not do the whole Seine”, “or even that we would repatriate to the Stade de France”, “because that is what is happening. done classically,” he explained.
“We are setting up a security perimeter which will be very large”
Until now, the executive has officially ruled out a withdrawal to the Stade de France, in particular because the Seine-Saint-Denis venue receives tests before July 26. Emmanuel Macron nevertheless wanted to reassure about the security system making it possible to maintain the river scenario, always privileged. “We have anticipated, we are setting up a security perimeter which will be very wide, where we will screen all the people who enter and leave,” he insisted.
This first in the history of the Olympic Games, a ceremony outside the stadium and on the Seine, attracts attention, even more since the attack in Moscow on March 22 claimed by the Islamic State. To better survey and secure the area along the river, it will take a week. Onlookers will be asked to show their credentials with a QR code. “Today, neither the Iranian team, nor the Israeli team, nor the American team are expressing their reservations, much less the IOC which is satisfied every day with the seriousness with which France prepares this opening ceremony “, recently affirmed the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
To ensure security as best as possible, the size of the festival was reduced: the number of spectators who could attend for free increased from 500,000 to 222,000. With those who paid for their place at the bottom of the platforms, they should being some 320,000 in total.