Paris (AFP)
Can we combine ethics, ecology with the sponsorship of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris? After the withdrawal of Total, the controversy over AirBnb and the commitment of EDF, the issue divides the candidates in the capital to four months of municipal.
"The Olympics is the sporting event where the public authorities are most involved, including the host city, which leads to a greater sensitivity to the issues of opinion," says Jean-Francois Martins, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of the Olympic Games.
"It will surely be one of the municipal subjects even if it is not central," said Benjamin Griveaux, LREM candidate.
"The way the Olympics will be prepared, their environmental and social impacts will be good campaign topics," ecologist David Belliard, candidate of Europe Ecology Greens at the mayor of Paris.
For the first time in a hundred years, the capital is preparing to host the biggest sporting event on the planet with, hopefully, job creation, site development, increased tourist attendance and a radiation abroad.
All this will have a cost: 6.8 billion euros, 3 for construction sites and 3.8 for the organization of which 1.2 contributed by the sponsors of the Organizing Committee (Cojo) which Paris headquarters. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) brings in 1.4 billion, powered by its own sponsors.
The choice of these companies has become sensitive since the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, pushed the oil group Total, deemed too polluting, to throw in the towel in July. Allied with environmentalists, the city has made compliance with the Paris agreements on the climate one of the issues of the Olympics.
- Pandora's box -
The entry of AirBnb among the main sponsors of the IOC until 2028 has also cringed the City Hall in dispute with the US giant, accused of promoting the housing shortage and rising rents in the capital. On the other hand, the arrival of EDF as second sponsor of the Cojo was welcomed.
"We have no vocation to give our blessing to each of the sponsors," relativizes Jean-Francois Martins justifying the veto on Total by the particularity "of a carbon energy company, symbolic of a model to give up". "But if a candidacy poses a problem, we say it".
"Of course, the sponsors of the games must share the values of sustainable development.And if there is a company that makes efforts in terms of ecological transition, it is EDF," he argues, also highlighting the help the electrician to win the challenge of a village and Olympic venues with 100% renewable energy.
"Yes, the choice of a sponsor is strategic", approves Pierre-Yves Bournazel, UDI candidate, for whom the sponsorship of Total did not stick with the objective of environmental exemplarity of Paris-2024.
On the other hand, for Cédric Villani, MP LREM candidate in Paris, "the way the sponsoring of Total was interrupted poses problem". He also does not understand "why Mrs Hidalgo gives her opinion on a choice of the IOC" even if he also wants "the application of harsher rules" against AirBnb.
His competitor LREM Benjamin Griveaux believes that it is not the role of an elected to "give moral lessons". When Total finances the Châtelet or Carnavalet, it's acceptable, but not the Olympics, "says the former spokesman of the government.
"We could apply to companies that have misbehaved harder criteria.I will tell Total, the ticket is not 100 but 200 million.If we slam the door, it will be the Parisians who will pay, "he says.
"All this is a game of tartuffe", David Belliard sweeps. "We are sold very green but (...) with sponsors who all have practices socially or ecologically questionable.It is a transaction of + greenwashing + (greenwashing)," he denounces.
"Anne Hidalgo has opened the Pandora's box with this debate, she has trapped herself and faces contradictions," said Gaspard Gantzer, former adviser to President Hollande, candidate in Paris. "No company will ever be free from reproach, it is a competition organized by the Olympic movement that has its ethics, let it work," he concluded.
© 2019 AFP