The landing has finally taken place. It had been anticipated for a few weeks. Gérald Darmanin eventually confirmed it. On Tuesday, March 5, in front of the senators, the Minister of the Interior announced that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, scheduled for July 26 on the Seine, will welcome around 320,000 spectators. 104,000 of them will have paid for their seats and will be positioned on the lower quays, while 222,000 will have been invited to attend for free on the upper quays.
Setting the “threshold” of accepted public along 6 kilometers of the river, closest to the fluvial parade of the sports delegations and the accompanying spectacle, puts a halt to the very high ambitions expressed by some of the stakeholders in the organization of the Games. It’s a reality check for the lofty aspirations that have been nurtured, fueled by a hint of megalomania.
Undoubtedly inspired by the Olympic motto “faster, higher, stronger”, the Organizing Committee (Cojop) and some of the politicians involved in the event, like the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, or the President of the Republic himself, had set very high expectations. Just over two years ago, everyone was determined to host 2 million spectators along the Seine, in addition to the 15,000 athletes and 150 heads of state.
The early warnings from security experts, describing the water ceremony as “unreasonable” – echoing the former Paris police prefect Didier Lallement – went unheeded for a long time. We were about to see it happen! On every New Year’s Eve or on July 14, don’t we gather about a million people on the Champs-Elysées without any issues? The English gathered a million spectators along the Thames in London for the Queen’s Jubilee in June 2022, so why would we do any worse?
A hit on the popular side
The principle of reality, which had started to show its effects in recent months – with talk of only 600,000 spectators – finally prevailed after two and a half years. In this case, the priority is to ensure security. This is meant to be a guarantee that the event remains “unforgettable”, as desired by President Macron. And in the sense of a “good memory”.
The evolving national and international context has weighed heavily. The repercussions of the wars in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas pose potential threats. Moreover, terrorist attacks are seen as a “characterized threat”, as demonstrated by the Arras attack in October 2023, where a teacher was killed, or the knife attack in December 2023 which claimed the life of a German-Filipino tourist near the Eiffel Tower. All of this requires a bit of “paranoia”, as put by the Ministry of the Interior.
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