France has prepared alternatives to holding the opening ceremony of the 26 July Olympic Games on the River Seine if security concerns require it, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday, POLITICO reports.
“We have fallback scenarios, plan Bs and plan Cs,” Macron said, listing two options: A ceremony “limited” to the Trocadéro area, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, or transferring the event to France’s largest sporting venue, the Stade de France.
Macron then tried – and failed – to convince a mother, worried about security risks, to let her son go to the river Seine ceremony. Macron told the mother, who asked her question during a BFM TV and RMC radio interview:
“If there is one place where your son will be safe it will be there. Let him go, it’s once every 100 years, the Olympics.”
The unconvinced mother responded that she hoped her son would work that day and be unable to attend.
Traditionally at past Olympic Games, the opening ceremony has been held in the main stadium, but according to sports publication L’Équipe, the Stade de France was not considered as part of the organisational process until this morning.
A proposed opening ceremony on the Seine has already been significantly scaled back due to security concerns. Plans for an opening ceremony that could have hosted up to 600,000 people have been cancelled in favour of an “invite-only” format with around 300,000 spectators.
Following the attack on a concert hall in Moscow last month, France raised its terror alert level to the highest, meaning authorities believe an attack could be imminent. Security for last week’s Champions League football match in Paris was “significantly” beefed up after a threat from the Islamic State group.
Paris has been working to clean up the Seine so people can swim in it again, as they did during the 1900 Paris Olympics. But a sewage problem last summer led to the cancellation of the pre-Olympic swimming competition.
