A few days before the Olympic Games, the military parade will take place on Avenue Foch in Paris, taking into account the constraints imposed by the organization of the sporting event.
The next July 14 parade will be “unpublished”. In presenting the program of ceremonies on Monday, the military governor of Paris, General Christophe Abad, was perhaps thinking of the future political configuration of the country, a week after the second round of legislative elections scheduled for July 7. Due to a duty of reserve, he did not comment. But whatever the result, with or without a majority, in cohabitation or not with the National Rally, the head of state Emmanuel Macron will review the troops aboard his “command car”. Then the soldiers will march down Avenue Foch in Paris, from Place Charles De Gaulle, also in a new configuration. “July 14 is a special moment in the bond between the nation and the armies”recalls General Abad, ensuring that the 2024 edition would not be “not a cheap parade”.
The Olympic Games, which will begin on July 26, will permeate the parade, which will also host the first torch relay in Île-de-France. It will be worn by Lieutenant-Colonel Thibaut Valette, gold medalist in the eventing competition (equestrian) during the Rio games (2016). The French army is proud to point out that it provides a strong contingent of high-level athletes. During the Tokyo Olympics (2021), military athletes won a third of French medals.
4500 troops, 45 planes 22 helicopters
For the first time in 45 years, the July 14 military parade will not take place on the Champs Élysée. Avenue Foch was chosen for practical and logistical reasons. The configuration of the premises and the holding of the games a few days later imposed their constraints. The armies had to give up the parade of motorized troops. The flypast will begin with helicopters for air traffic management reasons. The 2024 ceremonies will have fewer participants than previous editions: 4,500 troops, 45 planes 22 helicopters. The public should be a little smaller.
Due to the memorial calendar, the ceremonies will also pay tribute to the 80th anniversary of the Liberation. The 31 countries that participated in the liberation were invited to parade with their emblems. Not everyone has responded yet. Multiple units “companions of the Liberation” will also be honored like the Chad Marching Regiment, the Kieffer commando, the Amyot d’Inville marine rifle battalion, the 3/30 fighter squadron and the n°1 fighter squadron. American and British planes will participate in the flypast to remind everyone that France was liberated thanks to its allies.
Avoiding the “London syndrome”
The July 14 parade will finally make it possible to put in place and fine-tune the security systems which will then be deployed for the Olympic Games. The armies will be called upon to support the security forces. 10,000 soldiers will be mobilized in Île-de-France for a mission in a unique format. They will be deployed in particular as part of Operation Sentinel for “dynamic patrols, particularly between Olympic venues and transport access points, such as train stations. 4,500 soldiers will be housed in a military camp under construction on the Reuilly lawn, east of Paris. It will be inaugurated at the beginning of July. For now, the armies hope to escape what they have called “the London syndrome”. During the Games in the United Kingdom in 2012, the armies were mobilized at the last moment to supplement insufficient private security personnel. The Head of State promised, for the Paris Games, that the armies would not be called upon for replacement missions. They are already in enough demand elsewhere.
