The essential
France has moved this week, since the attack in Moscow, to the highest level of its Vigipirate security plan in the face of the terrorist threat. This calls into question the level of security needed for an event as exposed as the opening ceremony of the Olympics in July. And above all, if it can be assumed.
The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, scheduled for Friday, July 26, represents an immense security challenge for the organizers, reinforced by the attack on March 22 in Moscow and the terrorist threat that looms more than ever over the country. Four months before the start of the Games, rumors of an even more limited oversight of the opening ceremony are multiplying. Worse, according to some sources, the internal security is encouraging the ministry to give up its current form.
In any case, this is what a journalist from Europe 1 affirms, citing a source from the DGSI (General Directorate of Interior Security), which indicates to him that the message has been passed on to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. “We need to switch to plan B,” the DGSI would have implied to Beauvau. Plan B being, in this scenario, to rethink the organization of the parade as it is currently planned, with a route of over 6 kilometers along the Seine.
A still reduced capacity?
On Thursday, March 28, Gérald Darmanin had a meeting with the DGSI on the subject. At the end of this meeting, the minister took to social media to thank the internal security agents for “their commitment, especially in this Olympic year where our country will host the world’s largest event and an unprecedented opening ceremony”, seeming to dismiss information suggesting a spectacle devoid of some of its substance.
Did they still discuss the possibility of further reducing the number of spectators allowed to attend the opening ceremony? Three weeks ago, before the senators, the minister had indicated that only 326,000 people could attend the parade, almost half of what has long been announced by the organizers, namely an audience of 600,000 people. Three years ago, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, even mentioned… 2 million spectators.
The capacity will ultimately be much lower, and it could be further reduced if the terrorist threat intensifies further. Adjustments are therefore still largely possible, which is not a bad thing according to Guillaume Farde, an expert on security issues interviewed by franceinfo. According to him, having “a continuous risk assessment” for this type of event is “very healthy”. The reduction of the audience capacity or the length of the parade are part of the “adjustments” that it is “quite normal” to consider at this time.
