CHOPPY WATER
Ceremony on Seine to switch if threat of terror is too high
PARIS is promising an opening ceremony like no other.
But, 100 days out, France president Emmanuel Macron has finally admitted that Olympics organisers have relocation plans in place should a viable terror threat be made.
For now, the intention is for a flotilla carrying 10,000 athletes to make a 6km journey along the Seine.
A boat for each nation will depart Pont d’Austerlitz before ending up at the Trocadero, taking in many of the city’s most famous landmarks.
Along the quays more than 300,000 spectators will gather – less than half of what was initially proposed. Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, has continuously played down fears by stressing that such a major event is “very secure… among the safest places”.
However, Macron says the curtainraiser could still be confined to the Trocadero or relocated to the Stade de France if intelligence agencies decide the risk is too great.
Security is the only significant concern ahead of a Games in which preparations have gone smoothly.
Last month, Paris raised its terror threat to the highest level and Darmanin said: “We must of course remain humble in the face of danger.”
While Games chiefs remain adamant that staging the opening ceremony outside the centrepiece stadium for the first time is a good idea, it needs a safety operation unprecedented in scale.
There will be 45,000 police officers on duty throughout 16 days of competition, and a separate deployment of British police will make up a delegation of more than 2,500 foreign officers drafted in to assist. Parts of central Paris will be closed off a week before the ceremony and on the day of the parade more than a dozen metro stations will be shut eight hours before.
The airspace will be emptied for the evening and heads of state have been told they must stay overnight, with no exceptions.
By the time the Games begin, officials expect to have made more than one million background checks and Darmanin confirmed 161 people have already been excluded from volunteer and security roles.
He said: “Almost all of them French – 105 for radical Islam, 35 for the
extreme right, 18 for the extreme left and three for foreign interference.”
Before travelling, GB athletes will be spoken to at length about how to stay safe and they will use a mobile phone app featuring an alert button that will trigger their own private security team.
However, team sources say that is nothing out of the ordinary and a similar app was used in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago.
Macron is calling on a world staring war in the face to agree to “an Olympic truce, a diplomatic moment of peace”. Beginning with an opening ceremony he hopes will be plain sailing.
We must remain humble in the face of danger