In the end, there is always a question of money. The great celebration of Paris 2024 has not yet begun and eyes are now turning towards those of 2030. On July 24, two days before the big parade on the Seine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will hold its 142nd plenary session in France. With the fireworks being the awarding of the Winter Games for 2030 and 2034. The deal was already well put together: the French Alps were to win first while Salt Lake City, in the United States, won the next.
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On paper, the French file has everything to please the IOC. A budget officially under control (a little less than 2 billion euros), a large part of the equipment already built such as the bobsleigh track or the ski jump in Courchevel. For now, only the Olympic ice rink in Nice – at a cost of 53 million euros – and two cable cars in La Plagne and Courchevel were to be built. The tireless David Lappartient, president of the French National Olympic Committee, assured him: “France has the capacity to attract between 600 and 800 million euros from private sponsors.” Last but not least, the two other serious candidates had been eliminated. Switzerland because it first had to submit the Games file to a series of local referendums: an uncertainty not really to the liking of the IOC. And Sweden, whose State refused to grant the financial guarantee despite eight successive rejected applications…
But now the dissolution of the National Assembly has disrupted the plans of the International Olympic Committee. At the heart of the matter, a story of money. On November 7, 2023, when the Alps’ candidacy file was submitted to the IOC, Emmanuel Macron swore hand on heart that the French State would provide the financial guarantee for the operation. A guarantee already provided for the Paris 2024 Games. Clearly, in the event of a shortfall for the IOC, France will pay the bill. Except that the signing of this famous guarantee is a prerogative of the Prime Minister and not of the President of the Republic. To definitively decide, the IOC must receive the letter from the tenant of Matignon between July 8 and 24. Without this missive, there would be no Winter Games in the Alps.
“We will have this guarantee from the future Prime Minister”
This is where the issue becomes very political. Unlike Paris 2024 where the sports movement had largely driven the candidacy file, the 2030 Winter Games were pushed by politicians: a trio composed of Renaud Muselier, president of the PACA Region (ex-LR who joined Macron’s Renaissance party); Laurent Wauquiez, LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region; and Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice, also ex-LR. All under the leadership of David Lappartient, president of the CNOSF but also LR president of the Morbihan departmental council. A very politically tinged candidacy.
“We will have this guarantee from the future Prime Minister,” David Lappartient’s entourage assures L’Express. Guy Drut, member of the IOC, affirms that the Committee’s decision could even be postponed for a few months, to avoid haste. Would a Jordan Bardella at Matignon decide to offer this gift to the LR or would he prefer to play on the string of budgetary seriousness? As for the potential Prime Minister from the ranks of the New Popular Front, he could be sidelined under pressure from the Greens who consider these Winter Games not very ecological. Unless a sacred union around the influence of France in the world brings everyone together. Another member of the IOC considers it urgent to wait until the end of the Paris Games to make the decision, just to verify that popular fervor outweighs the financial risk. One more little unknown in this great political mess.