Paris (AFP) – The Paris Olympic Games “should cost” between three and five billion euros of public money, the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, estimated Tuesday on France Inter.
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“We do not yet know the cost of the Olympics,” said Mr. Moscovici, “the Court of Auditors will audit it after the Olympics.” “These Games should cost between 3, 4, 5 billion, we will see but that is not what will have an absolutely massive impact” on the debt, he clarified.
When asked by a listener about the impact of the 2024 Olympics on the debt, Mr. Moscovici replied that it would be “moderate”.
Until now, Pierre Moscovici mentioned the figure of 3 billion euros of public money for the Olympics. In 2023, the budget documents reported public investments of 2.44 billion euros (including 1.3 billion for the State and 260 million for the city of Paris).
But, overall, the public bill is not possible because all the costs are not known. For example, bonuses of 1,900 euros given to police officers were recently added, which could increase the public bill by 500 million euros.
Currently, the provisional bill for the Olympics – public and private money mixed – is around 9 billion euros.
The organizing committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo) has a budget of 4.4 billion euros made up of 96% private money, to which is added the budget of Solideo, responsible for building the permanent structures, around 4, 4 billion euros also including 1.7 billion of public money.
A sign that times are tough to close the budget four months right before the Olympics, the Cojo recently approached the Ile-de-France region to ask if it could financially cover the travel of 200,000 accredited people (athletes, officials, journalists). …), i.e. a budget of just under 10 million euros.
The Cojo can “optimize as much as possible” its revenues, having “still sponsors to go to work” and “places to sell”, estimated Valérie Pécresse, questioned on this subject on Tuesday by AFP.