No new tax, 400,000 tickets for young people… What to remember from Emmanuel Macron’s interview on the Olympics – Liberation

Two years to the day of the Paris Games, Emmanuel Macron is playing minesweeper. On the subject of the budget for the Olympics – which crystallizes a number of concerns, in particular because of inflation – the Head of State underlines “that there are solutions to meet them and that there are no excesses in our costs”. “In this context, I reaffirmed a simple principle: there will be no Olympic Games tax. The Games must fund the Games,” insists the President of the Republic in an interview with The team published this Tuesday morning.

Emmanuel Macron also announces that the State “go buy 400,000 tickets” on the occasion of the 2024 Olympics (July 26 – August 11) “which he will distribute to young people and schoolchildren, especially those under 16”but also – among others – to “volunteers who contribute to the Games and to sport in France”.

“Facilitate access to sport”

The “popular box office” mentioned by the President will also be intended “to people with disabilities, their caregivers and state and community officials who help with these Games, particularly categories B and C”, specifies the Head of State. According to him, this device “will aim to facilitate access to sport and allow those who have contributed to the influence of the Games to access competitions, where they might not have been able to afford them”.

In all, 10 million tickets will be on sale for the Olympic Games and nearly 3.4 million for the Paralympic Games in Paris, according to the organizers’ website.

Emmanuel Macron convened an Olympic Council on Monday, in which nearly a dozen ministers participated for more than two hours at the Elysée. From Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, to the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, to that of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, of National Education Pap Ndiaye or even of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, all presented their Olympic agenda. The purpose of this “site meeting” was both to review all the files relating to the Olympics, in particular on the thorny aspect of security, but also to sign the mobilization at all levels of the State.

Discussions between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo), whose budget of 4 billion is almost entirely financed by private revenue, to try to identify ways of saving had already been started. a few weeks ago. The organizers, whose budget is guaranteed by the State, must withstand the inflationary shock, and are carrying out a budget review this year.