The Olympic Council will meet this Thursday at the Elysée, alongside Emmanuel Macron.
President Emmanuel Macron will bring together on Thursday the main ministers and local elected officials concerned with the organization of the 2024 Olympic Games, including the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and the president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse, who had deplored not be invited to a previous meeting.
For this Olympic and Paralympic Council to be held at the Elysée, the Head of State will be surrounded by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, Ministers of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Transport Clément Beaune, but also the interministerial delegate (Dijop) Michel Cadot, the prefects Marc Guillaume and Laurent Nunez and the director general of the Olympic works delivery company (Solideo) Nicolas Ferrand.
Read alsoOlympics 2024: not invited to a “site meeting”, Hidalgo and Pécresse tackle Macron
The president of the organizing committee (Cojo) Tony Estanguet, the presidents of the national Olympic and Paralympic sports committees Brigitte Henriques (CNOSF) and Marie-Amélie Le Fur (CPSF) will also attend, as well as, for local authorities, Anne Hidalgo and Valérie Pécresse, the president of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis Stéphane Troussel, the mayor of Saint-Denis Mathieu Hanotin and the president of the metropolis of Greater Paris (MGP) Patrick Ollier, specified the Elysée on Wednesday to journalists .
SEE ALSO – Olympic Games 2024: “There is no hidden tax increase”, says Olivier Véran
Inflation on the agenda
Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille where the sailing competitions will take place, was also invited.
At the end of July, Anne Hidalgo and Valérie Pécresse, former rivals of Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election, had deplored with one voice not to have been invited to a meeting at the Elysée Palace, stressing that “communities are an essential link” of “the success of major international sporting events».
Inflation linked to the energy crisis will be one of the topics discussed at this new meeting, with a revision of around 150 million euros in the Solideo budget until the Olympics, said the Elysée. This amount starts fromrather pessimistic projections” in order to “don’t have any bad surprisesfor the next two years, specifies the same source.
Read alsoJO: “whatever happens we will bathe in the Seine” after 2024 says the town hall of Paris
The government will propose to the communities to finance two thirds of this increase linked to the inflation of the Solideo budget, indicates the presidency.
In total, the State now plans around 1.8 billion euros in public spending, wherever they come from, for the Olympic project, against around 1.5 billion at the start, a “controlled budget of which the French can be proud».
As for the project of being able to bathe in the Seine, for the athletes during the Games and for the general public afterwards, “we are on time“, assured the Elysée which plans to organize tests from the summer of 2023.
«Ile-de-France residents will be able to swim in the Seine from 2024“, said the Elysée again.
SEE ALSO – Paris-2024 Olympics: two years before the Games, the Stade de France took on the colors of an “Olympic day”
