An inclusive Paris Olympic Games, really? – Liberation

Editorial by Alexandra Schwartzbrod

France had promised a virtuous 2024 Games. Our investigation shows that, in Paris and Ile-de-France, the instruction is to remove the excluded, those who have the street as their only refuge. But it is perhaps not too late to give meaning to the Olympic values: friendship, respect and excellence.

This is the dark side of the coin. To best prepare for these moments of intensity and collective joy that are the Olympic Games, and incidentally to attract sports enthusiasts who are potential tourists for the future, host cities tend to renovate facades and build new buildings. , clean and green the squares and river banks, tackle the asphalt to fill the potholes and… drive out the precarious, the excluded, the undesirable. Hide this misery which would spoil the party… No Olympic city had escaped the rule. Paris is no exception.

Except that France, carried away by its enthusiasm, had promised an Olympic Games adorned with all the virtues, economically sober, ecologically respectful and… inclusive, that is to say open to all. Inclusive, really? Our investigation shows that, four months before the opening ceremony, in Paris but also throughout the Ile-de-France region, the instruction is to clear out all those who have the street as their only refuge, and they are unfortunately numerous in these times troubled by wars and marked by economic difficulties. This leads to desperate situations, like these recent evacuations of camps of unaccompanied minors on the banks of the Seine. And although efforts are sometimes made to find alternative housing solutions for some of these homeless people or refugees, this is far from being the rule. And when there is a solution, it is most of the time temporary. To the point that associations do not hesitate to denounce a real “social cleansing”, a stain on these Games which were intended to be virtuous. It is perhaps not too late to restore meaning to the Olympic values, excellence, respect, friendship. There is no reason for them to remain confined to sport.