An opening ceremony less grandiose than expected.

The government has considerably reduced the number of spectators for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, setting it at 326,000, compared to 600,000 once envisaged, to meet the security challenge of organizing this vast unprecedented river parade on the Seine.

Securing this opening ceremony, for the first time in history outside a stadium, has been a headache for Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin from the start.

In a tense international context, with a terrorist threat weighing on France still present, the question of the gauge was at the heart of the negotiations between the authorities and the organizers of the 2024 Olympic Games.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior, Camille Chaize, agreed to provide an update on our antenna.

Why did you choose to halve the number of spectators during the opening ceremony?

There was a balance to be found and a sort of global pragmatism was imposed with these gauges.

We will also have different audiences, audiences who have paid for their tickets and who have made this voluntary act of coming as close as possible to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

On the high platforms, there will be much more open and more varied allocation methods, but which still guarantee us to know early enough who these places are given to.

This will allow us to carry out security investigations which are a way of excluding people who may be complex for us in terms of profile.

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This is not contradictory with the spirit which initially governed this ceremony in the heart of the city?

Especially with these very expensive places for the 104,000 privileged people who will attend the ceremony from the lower platforms?

There is the opening ceremony but there will be plenty of other ways to take part in the party.

There will be all celebration locations open at the time of the opening ceremony.

There will be the marathon which will cross several departments and Paris and the public will be able to be all around.

There is also the torch relay which will pass through our 64 participating departments.

Gérald Darmanin recalled yesterday that the public chosen with tickets or free on the platforms will represent four Stades de France, which is therefore at least four times more than if we had partitioned this opening ceremony into a sports venue.

It's a big effort.

Afterwards, we know the geopolitical situation, we know the terrorist risks and I think that there is a point of balance which has thus been defined.

Is it the precedent of the Champions League final that led to the gauge being reduced?

I think we've come a long way since the Champions League final.

The question of managing the flow of people is a real subject.

For the opening ceremony, 300,000 people will go through a screening system where there will be security pat-downs and bag searches.

This notion of filtering and compulsory passage for the public is a real question of security for us and this is how the security system was actually designed.

Is there a high risk of an attack, particularly given the context in the Middle East?

The threat is high in France.

Unfortunately, there have been recent attacks which have reminded us of this.

There is an endogenous threat with people who may have self-radicalized on our soil.

There is also the continuing threat of groups projected from outside.

However, no leaflet, no propaganda was read by our intelligence services and those of our partners, specifically mentioning the Olympic Games in France.

France remains a global target, like unfortunately many European countries.

But there is no specific targeting on the Olympic Games.

We are going to combine both humans, with 45,000 police officers on the ground, but also new technical means to help us intervene.

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