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Let’s open our eyes: the flame arrives in a fortress Europe which has forgotten its traditions of welcome and hospitality: the astronomical economic cost of the Olympics and its experimental security measures which in the end are paid by taxpayers and communities ( to host a stage of the flame for example), denounce Sébastien Barles and Aïcha Sif, deputy mayors of Marseille
While leaders prepare to welcome, on May 8 with great fanfare in Marseille, the arrival of the Olympic flame, a prelude to the 2024 Olympic Games, like many French people and Marseille residents, we do not believe in the beautiful story that we want to tell us: that of the Olympic Games, vectors of peace and harmony between peoples while the war is there on European and Mediterranean soil in Ukraine and Gaza.
We would have liked to believe, with the arrival of the flame in Marseille from Olympia, in the resurgence of the beautiful founding legend of our city, that of the “native” princess Gyptis welcoming with open arms and marrying the “metic” Protis, who came from Greece.
We believe in the virtues of sporting practice, meetings and exchanges between people, popular festivals, moments of communion and sharing creating social bonds and fraternity. We feel emotion in the face of the athletes’ prowess. But let us not be fooled by the exploitation of the Olympics as a tool to divert public opinion from the vital issues of our time: the climate challenge and the safeguarding of our democratic framework and our social pact.
These Olympics have a negative ecological impact
Let’s open our eyes: the flame arrives in a fortress Europe which has forgotten its traditions of welcome and hospitality, which is threatened by the rise of national populism and illiberal democracies.
