May 28, the date of the Champions League final won by Real Madrid against Liverpool (1-0), will undoubtedly have had a virtue, "that of waking up everyone a little, especially for the Olympics", had confided to AFP a source close to the organizers.

The scenes of violence, thefts, the calamitous management of the public by the police, this "huge mess" according to a source close to the mysteries of sport, during this final organized at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, in a department which will host part of the events of the Paris Games, struck a chord beyond France.

"On a single event, the services mobilized that evening lost ten years of legitimacy, work, recognition", while "on a daily basis, they manage hundreds of security operations which are going rather well", regrets a police source.

"Adhesive Bandage"

It is "a band-aid that will stick us to the Olympics", summed up a government source a few weeks later with AFP.

The question of whether finally France was able to secure a planetary event like the Olympics then suddenly appeared.

Police officers on duty try to restore order around the Stade de France before the Champions League final, May 28, 2022 © THOMAS COEX / AFP / Archives

"There have been a number of misses. We are going to do everything to really be in working order so that the party is the party and that France is up to it", assured Friday on RTL the attorney general near the court of call of Paris, Rémy Heitz.

"These are two events that have nothing to do with each other, which do not have the same audience. But if some had forgotten that there was a slight concern for delinquency in Seine-Saint-Denis, it served as a sting recall", said a senior official close to Beauvau.

This warning shot undoubtedly played a role in the recovery that followed, "clearly coming from the Elysée", assures this senior official.

The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin took full control of the file, multiplying the outings by ensuring that the security of the Olympics was indeed one, even THE priority of his ministry, supported by the new prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nunez, in replacement of Didier Lallement.

"Darmanin is playing his future, he who has ambition now knows that his future is conditioned on the security success of the Olympics", analyzes a political source.

The arrival of Laurent Nunez at the PP has also restored its place to the Olympics within the Ile-de-France services.

"It's not the same approach anymore", assures a police source, the prefect Lallement "was more focused on the Yellow Vests, the maintenance of order, this kind of thing, than on the Olympic Games, which were far away for him ."

The prefect of Paris Laurent Nunez (in the center) meeting the police of the capital in Les Halles, September 22, 2022 © Thomas SAMSON / AFP / Archives

In October 2022, the minister detailed his plan of attack, and in particular for this extraordinary opening ceremony, on the Seine, the first outside a stadium: 35,000 police officers mobilized for the ceremony, a gauge set at 600,000 spectators , 30,000 police and gendarmes mobilized per day, and a +zero crime+ plan on the sites hosting the Olympic Games...

"One shot"

The opening ceremony, with 160 boats expected and more than 10,000 athletes to sail over nearly 6 km, constitutes a major challenge, "a huge challenge", with in particular the "flow management at the water's edge", which is not yet fixed, according to this police source.

This illustration published on December 15, 2021 by the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Games (Cojo) shows what the planned opening ceremony on the Seine will look like © Florian Hulleu / Paris 2024/AFP/Archives

The philosophy of the organizers is always confronted with that of the security services on this question, the first wishing to leave the spectators free to circulate on the upper quays of the Seine, the others wishing to "fix" them, and set up a free ticket office, according to several sources.

The lower quays of the Seine will host stands with seats (around 100,000).

The PP services "have never worked on scenarios like this before".

"When it's repetitive, they can do + debriefs +, improve, perpetuate what didn't work. There it will be a + one shot +".

© 2022 AFP