Kick-off of the future olympic village of the Paris Olympics

Five years before the Olympic Games in Paris, the first pick-up was given Monday, November 4, on the site of the Olympic and Paralympic Village in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the poorest department of the metropolis.

For the occasion, the Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, made the trip alongside the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. "If we want them to be successful, all this organization, this funding, this mobilization, do not disappear when the Olympic flame goes out. government in Saint-Ouen, where he symbolically launched the pharaonic work of the village athletes.

Starting signal ! Beginning of the construction of the Olympic Village. 51 hectares will be used to house the athletes during # Paris2024, which will then serve as housing for 6,000 people. pic.twitter.com/Pa5T1DsWTA

Following a three-year project, the 51-hectare site between Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and L'Ile-Saint-Denis will welcome nearly 15,000 athletes and officials in 2024, before being reconfigured into a new neighborhood, with more than 3,000 homes in 2025.

"There has to be something left," said Édouard Philippe, "that something will be material: it is the public facilities, this village of 51 hectares, but it is also practices, public policies (...) and in particular, the redevelopment of sport among our fellow citizens. "

We dreamed it, we are there! We are launching the works of the Olympic and Paralympic Village # Paris2024, aligned with the objectives of the Paris agreement for sustainable games, but also real accelerator of transformation for the Seine-Saint-Denis. cc @SOLIDEO_JOP @ Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/oKpgCEtl8G

Many measures related to the Olympics

Earlier in the morning, in Saint-Denis, a package of 170 measures related to the Olympics, already taken or expected, was announced at the end of an interministerial committee.

Some are already known, such as the creation of a unit at Pôle Emploi dedicated to positions related to Olympics, the "water comfort" plan to fight against drowning, cycling plan or a tax exemption system to facilitate the sport in companies and encourage them to equip themselves with sports equipment, showers and changing rooms.

Among the new measures are the creation of a gender equality label, which will be extended to other sporting events, and a training plan for young people in civic service on support missions to the Olympic Games. (10,000 per year from 2020). Another goal is to train 3,000 people with disabilities to become Games volunteers. In addition, a budget of 20 million euros will be allocated to an extensive program of research on high performance sports very specifically intended to increase the chances of medals in 2024.

A controversial project

Locally, there are already protests against the proposed Olympic Village that promises to shave an area hosting more than twenty companies, three schools, a hotel, a student residence and a home for foreign workers.

"We have been there for 40 years and there is no more room for us, it's insulting," says Boubacar Diallo, representative of the residents of the Saint-Ouen foreign workers' shelter on which a large number of banner "In struggle for a dignified relocation". As a replacement, two new residences are scheduled to open in 2022. But residents refuse the temporary relocation proposed by the Olympic Games Delivery Company (Solideo), the public institution responsible for the Olympic Games sites.

Also unhappy, the public school of engineers Supméca, whose campus will be cut in two. "We are removing our land reserve, it is public money that will solve the problem of private developers," stormed his director Alain Rivière.

In Saint-Denis, some residents also fear nuisances due to the concentration, in a restricted area, of the future Olympic swimming pool, the biggest station of Grand Paris, the burying of the high-voltage lines, the sound barrier of the A86 and the development of the banks of the Seine. The Solideo promises "there will be no night work" and ensures that "what will happen in 3-4 years is the compensation for what has not happened in 30 years."

Between the organizational costs and the building sites, the total budget of the Games amounts to 6.8 billion euros, including 1.5 billion public expenditure.

With AFP