The executive’s watchword remains the same: there is no question of giving in to the terrorist threat. Reason why the relocation of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games planned on the Seine is not “a hypothesis” currently considered.
This is what Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera declared this Monday, December 4 at France Inter. Two days after the attack on the Bir-Hakeim bridge in Paris, where an attacker registered for Islamist radicalization stabbed several people, leaving two injured and one dead. “We don’t have a plan B, we have a plan A in which there are several plans Bs”, said the minister, who ensures that the government is in the “capacity” to “secure this event”.
A modular spectator gauge
Aware, however, of the “terrorist threat and in particular the Islamist threat” which is not “new and it is neither specific to France nor specific to the Games”, Amélie Oudéa-Castera wanted to reassure. Promising that “everything is in order to reduce it as much as possible with an absolute state of vigilance”. “We undoubtedly have a very particular security challenge at the opening ceremony, we have known this since the first day,” concedes the minister.
Several adjustment variables are notably in the nails. Among which, the number of spectators present at this ceremony, fixed in the spring, which will be flexible. But also “the number of festivities which will be authorized around the area and in Paris” and “the management of security perimeters”.
Reinforced security
Minesweepers and dog teams will also be mobilized for the occasion. “And there is also the whole system around the security perimeters […] notably this Silt perimeter (from the Internal Security and Fight against Terrorism Law, Editor’s note)”, explained Amélie Oudéa-Castera who spoke of the establishment of “so-called red and blue perimeters (concerning traffic, Editor’s note)” supposedly “allow the area to be secured in depth”.
Guest of France info, the first deputy of the Paris town hall Emmanuel Grégoire recalled that the Rugby World Cup had just taken place without “any incident”. And to estimate that “the Olympics and the moments of collective celebration that must be called into question”, but “the way in which we anticipate the risks in treating these individuals”.
Note that a law of May 19, 2023 relating to the 2024 Olympic Games also provides for the establishment of a video surveillance system in order to detect suspicious behavior. Widely contested on the left, the measure is supported by the executive. “It’s about having a decision-making tool for law enforcement, it’s not about recognizing people who have this or that profile, or hoodies, but predetermined situations , such as fire outbreaks, bottlenecks, abandoned packages or crowd movements,” defended Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.