This is a turnaround coming from Emmanuel Macron himself. The President of the Republic has decided to abandon the planned movement of the second-hand booksellers’ boxes installed on the banks of the Seine in preparation for the opening ceremony of next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, the President announced on Tuesday, February 13. Elysium.
“Noting that no consensual and reassuring solution could be identified with these actors”, “the President of the Republic asked the Minister of the Interior and the Paris Police Prefect that all second-hand booksellers be preserved, and that none of them is forced to be displaced,” the same source explained. According to his entourage, the Head of State thus shows them “his attention considering that it is a living heritage of the capital”.
The security system “adapted accordingly”
The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is due to take place on July 26 on the Seine. Citing security requirements, the police headquarters had planned to remove some of the second-hand booksellers’ boxes for “a few days”, which also posed a problem for the view of the river spectacle from the high quays. A compromise solution had been considered to dismantle only part of it, but without satisfying the second-hand booksellers.
To be able to maintain the second-hand booksellers’ stalls, Emmanuel Macron “asked that the security system be adapted accordingly, with the spaces concerned on the high platforms no longer likely to accommodate the public during the ceremony”, according to the Elysée.
But this looming decision had already been taken into account in the gauge revised downwards at the end of January to around 300,000 spectators, assured a source close to the matter. The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin “will return to the entire security system for the opening ceremony at the end of March, once all consultations with local elected officials and stakeholders have been completed”, specified this source. .