D-500 before the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For the occasion, this Tuesday March 14, Emmanuel Macron must go to the Île-de-France prefecture to “to highlight the work of the officials involved in the organization of the Games”. The president wishes “Show the diversity of actors involved”, indicates the Elysée. Because a year and a half before the opening of the Games, there are still many projects.
Transport and security, major issues
Eager to receive a transport plan in early 2023, the Élysée ensures that it has received a first version “who needs to be assessed”, before the forthcoming transmission of a travel plan dedicated to the Paralympic Games. Recognizing that there is still ” a lot of work “ on the management of very diverse subjects ranging from the timing of transport to the relocation of a certain number of service points, including the location of bicycle parking lots, the Élysée ensures that the transport plan will be finalized ” right in time “.
If the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, declared in The crossbe ready to extend the RATP bus monopoly so as not to interfere with the Olympic Games, “no decision has been made on these issues”assures the Elysée. “It is a discussion on which we cannot comment, because it does not only concern the Games. »
Same story on the security side. At this stage, the Ministry of the Interior “is not able to give all the points of detail” the security plan around the opening ceremony, because the latter will depend on the “artistic concept of the ceremony”, not yet finalized, justifies the Elysée. By kicking in touch, the entourage of the president invites to wait until April 12, date on which this concept will be presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Sale of tickets, thorny subject
Another point of vigilance, the issue of ticketing. A few weeks after the start of ticket sales, which generated a great deal of disappointment and frustration, the Élysée indicated that it had “always happy” the ambition to grant a large volume of places at low cost. “It’s a million places at 24 €, four million places at 50 €”, reminds the executive. “It is a commitment that we had made collectively (…). The figures announced by Tony Estanguet (president of the Organizing Committee, editor’s note) reinforce our feeling that a balance has been found between the need to have accessible places and the economic model of the Games. »
As for free places, distributed by the State, the Élysée indicates that it has reduced the purchases of 400,000 places. “It will be up to the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, to announce in the coming weeks the terms of allocation and the beneficiaries”, explains the Elysée. Among them, people with disabilities and their companions, young people, especially schoolchildren, with a student component, volunteers from the sports movement and finally civil servants, especially from the Paris region, who are involved in the Olympic project.
Disability: black point of construction sites?
Among the points of vigilance raised 500 days before the start of the Games, the question of disability is on everyone’s lips. While many associations fear a poor consideration of the issues, the Elysée assures that a work “will be launched very soon”under the aegis of the interministerial delegation to the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Dijop), on the organization of mobility.
“We know that there is a problem with the historic network of the Paris metro, we recognize in the entourage of Emmanuel Macron. It is an effort of several decades that is to be accomplished on this subject by the local authorities concerned and the transport operators. However, we are not late. We are certain of reaching the level of the commitments we made. »
