the fallback scenario for the opening ceremony is becoming clearer

PARIS JOYS – This is a much less fun scenario, since no public would be invited. Seven weeks before the Paris Olympics, the authorities are working on a plan B excluding the Stade de France, with a parade of athletes on the Pont d’Iéna, between the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro, assure this Wednesday, June 12 to the AFP sources with knowledge of the negotiations.

The deadline is approaching for the opening ceremony on the evening of July 26, on the Seine, a first in history, even if a fallback scenario is often considered.

“The idea is to pick up the athletes at the Olympic village in Saint-Denis and take them by bus to the foot of the Eiffel Tower”explains a senior official on condition of anonymity.

Once arrived, the athletes could then parade on the Pont d’Iéna which connects the Parisian monument to the Trocadéro, before returning to the village. All without an audience. Exit the 100,000 paid seats planned on the lower quays of the Seine, and the 220,000 spectators invited to follow the ceremony as planned in plan A.

“It’s a scenario that maintains some semblance of ceremony, but the likelihood of it happening is slim. Basically if there is an attack between now and then, or a specific and targeted threat to the opening ceremony, and in this case it is very likely that everything will be canceled, including the Olympics”assures the security source.

A rugby sevens match on July 26 at the Stade de France

Faced with concerns linked to international tensions, requests for a fallback solution have been made repeatedly for months by numerous political figures. And the answers have not always been very clear.

If Emmanuel Macron had assured as early as December 2023 that there were alternative plans, the head of the Organizing Committee (Cojo) Tony Estanguet had caused trouble by asserting a month later that there was no “no plans B”that his teams were only working on the hypothesis of a ceremony on the Seine.

On April 15, Emmanuel Macron tried to clarify the situation by specifically mentioning the existence of “plan B, even plan C”of the opening ceremony in the event of a terrorist threat.

That day, the President of the Republic spoke of the possibility of an encore ceremony “limited to Trocadéro”or a withdrawal to the Stade de France, “because that’s what is classically done”he said.

The second hypothesis has since been abandoned. “It wasn’t already possible because there is a rugby sevens match planned for that day at the SDF”assured a security source.

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