French press review

In the spotlight: the Paris Olympics on the horizon

Audio 04:08

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech at the Élysée celebrating the awarding of the 2024 Olympics to France, in Paris in 2017. © REUTERS / Yoan Valat / Pool

By: Adrien Delgrange

3 mins

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So far so close... Two years from the opening of the 2024 games, the obstacle course has begun, headlines

Le Figaro

.

Just 24 months from their opening, the Olympics stand like a hedge at the break of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term.

And the executive will have to cross this hurdle without tripping, or dragging the reputation of the country in the event of a fall, warns

Le Figaro

.

With some 13 million visitors expected on some forty competition sites and more than 3 billion potential viewers, the bet to be taken up is therefore colossal.

Popular and festive, the Olympic Games are also financially greedy, point

Liberation

.

The editorial writer for

Libé 

warns from the outset that he does not want to play the killjoy: " 

Not that we are hostile to this event which, we hope, will look like a huge popular festival associating in a the same jubilation of the inhabitants of Paris, its outskirts, the rest of France and the millions of foreign visitors.

But all the same, the current politico-economic context, weighed down by the war in Ukraine, risks weighing heavily on the progress of the works

 ”.

And to underline: " 

Two years from the competition, the budget would have increased from 6.6 to 8.3 billion euros and we are talking about a total bill which could be around 10 billion euros 

".

So certainly, the budget overrun is consubstantial with the organization of the Olympic Games, but all the same,

Liberation

insists , given the economic difficulties that are looming, excluding the Olympics, and the mass of public services in which it will be necessary to invest in France in the years to come – hospitals and education in the lead – it would be wise for this simple cost overrun not to turn into a cost explosion.

An Olympic and Paralympic council organized yesterday at the Élysée

There is no concern in my eyes, but I want to hold regular site meetings

 ," said the head of state in an interview with the sports daily

L'Équipe

.

And to spin the sporting metaphor: “ 

It's a time trial that begins.

For me, we are on schedule but every day that separates us from the Games must be a useful day to succeed

 ”.

On the financial side, there will be no OJ tax.

“ 

The Games must finance the Games

 ,” says Emmanuel Macron.

On the ticketing side, we have endeavored to have reasonable prices, says the Head of State.

The first tickets will cost €24.

The State will also buy 400,000 tickets which it will distribute to young people and volunteers who contribute to the Games and sport in France.

On the security side, Emmanuel Macron asked that the Ministry of the Interior make projections to ensure the Games in complete safety over their duration, while being able to deal with events elsewhere in France which could occur in parallel, such as large fires or a terrorist attack.

As for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the Seine, it will be a small organizational miracle, thinks the French president: “ 

We will finalize the artistic work at the start of the school year by recruiting an artistic director, a scenographer

 ”.

Emmanuel Macron traveling to Cameroon

Le Monde Afrique

 publishes a column entitled: “ 

Emmanuel Macron must, in the name of France, recognize the war in Cameroon

 ”.

A group of personalities believes that " 

it is high time for the French State to fully assume its responsibilities

 " in the " 

ferocious repression of the 1950s and 1960s

 ".

Emmanuel Macron therefore has an appointment with history in Yaoundé.

“ 

Will he be the first French president to officially recognize this real war and to lift one of the last great French taboos of the post-war period

?

 “, wonder these French and Cameroonian intellectuals who sign this forum, to be found on the site of

World Africa

.

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