Macron: “If there are security problems, the inauguration can be reconsidered”

The giant opening ceremony in Paris 2024 have plans to celebrate with River Seine to inaugurate the Olympics next year could be moved elsewhere if France is hit again in a run-up of terrorist attacks, he said French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron’s comments came in a televised interview on Wednesday evening. From the July 26 ceremony Many details about the show remain under wraps to maintain its expected wow factor. Security will be tight, with tens of thousands of police and soldiers deployed: athletes will parade in the center of the French capital on boats on the Seine, in the first opening ceremony of a Summer Games held outside the usual outline of a stadium. Hundreds of thousands of spectators will fill both banks of the river.

“We are preparing a unique opening ceremony, which I hope will make the French proud,” Macron told public broadcaster France 5. “It will be a moment of beauty, of true art, of celebrating sport and the our values.” , with the Seine and the capital as the theater,” he added. But he said plans could be changed for safety reasons.

He cited the deadly extremist attacks that devastated Paris in 2015 as an example of the kind of serious crisis that can force a rethink of plans. “You are 15 days away from the Olympic Games. There are a series of terrorist attacks. What do you do? Well, you don’t organize (a ceremony) in the Seine,” he said. “As we are professionals, obviously there are plans B, plans C, etc. You have to be prepared for everything. If there is increase in international or regional tensions, if there are a series of attacks… that is a plan B ,” he emphasized. Macron.