The countdown is ticking down inexorably to the launch of the Olympic Games in Paris, but France’s capital city has never seemed in such a poor position to host this international event. Controversy after controversy is undermining Mayor Anne Hidalgo to the point where international tourists, athletes, and officials are worried about whether the city will even be able to provide the right conditions for the Games.
Since November, panic has begun to set in about the viability of holding the Olympic Games in Paris. Anne Hidalgo, who stubbornly wanted to host them—and has put all her energy into the project—is now herself casting doubt on the event. At an organisational meeting at the end of November, the mayor put on a grand theatrical performance to explain that the transport system would never be ready in time, taking everyone to task for her negative attitude.
One wonders whether all this might not be part of a mediocre but predictable strategy: announcing a possible disaster so that you can then drape yourself in a convenient “I told you so”—with a perfectly clear conscience.
For several months now, one report after another has been released, undermining the credibility of the municipal team and proving its appalling amateurism and inability to meet the challenge it has been given. Lies follow lies. It is becoming increasingly clear that Anne Hidalgo has said just about anything and everything to help Paris’ bid to host the 2024 Games win, but is in no way able to keep her tantalising promises.
Free transport is just one example. Anne Hidalgo had made free transport for visitors at the time of the Games one of the key arguments of Paris’s bid, touted as an open, green, and welcoming city: €0 transport to limit the carbon footprint of the Games. But the organisers backed down in the face of the cost of such a measure to a budget that was already well overrun. As a result, a significant increase in the price of metro and RER tickets during the Games has been announced: between July 20th and September 8th, the price of a metro ticket will rise to €4 (from the current €2.10) and a book of tickets to €32 (from €16.90). It’s simply a question of realism: guaranteeing a good quality of service has a cost. But realism is not one of the primary qualities of the teams in charge of organising these Paris games.
Transport is not the only cause of budget overruns. From one project to the next, the slate continues to grow by millions, without any real results. Parisians were stunned to discover that the magnificent Olympic swimming pool promised for Seine-Saint-Denis will not be built as planned, and that the swimming events will be held in a rugby stadium. According to figures provided by L’Express, the initial assessment for building the Olympic pool put the cost at €67.8 million. The estimate has risen to €90 million for the final project, well below the actual cost of a building of this type. A consortium led by the Bouygues company finally won the contract in April 2020, but for a sum of €174 million—not for the 17,000-seat building initially envisaged, but for a 5,000-seat complex. In the end, it will not be possible to host the inline swimming events there.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, there are now suspicions of corruption involving the chairman of the Games Organising Committee, who is the target of an investigation into his remuneration.
The amateurism of the Paris City Council in the management of the organisation of the Games can be seen in the sometimes authentically grotesque statements made by Anne Hidalgo, such as when she declared, in a 2017 video released at the beginning of 2024, that solar collectors would be installed to recover the energy generated by the athletes and spectators in order to power various facilities.
Ridicule is alive and well in Paris, but on a more serious note, it’s a source of great concern. Very few people now look forward to the Games. In high places, there is a subject that people dare not talk about, but which is on everyone’s mind: what if the whole thing ends in a gigantic fiasco? What if the huge opening ceremony on the Seine, which was supposed to be the highlight of the show and the biggest thing in living memory, turns out to be a gigantic flop?
Anne Hidalgo was very clear on the related subject of the swimming events scheduled to take place in the Seine: there is no plan B. However, some people are starting to think that this plan B is a vital necessity if the city of Paris, and therefore France behind it, is not to lose all international credibility in the event of problems. According to revelations in the always well-informed satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné, a last-minute alternative solution is presently being studied at the request of the Élysée Palace.
In the face of the predicted chaos, more or less alarmist announcements are being made to Parisians. In the run-up to the Games, Parisians are delighted to learn that they will have to stop using public transport, work from home as much as possible, and stop having parcels delivered. Publicly-funded posters are now plastered all over the walls of the metro encouraging people to take shelter during the ‘tornado.’
From then on, it becomes increasingly clear that Parisians have only one option: to leave, to flee Paris to avoid being plunged into hell. They are already more than disgusted with the Games before they have even begun. Even Anne Hidalgo, who is so quick to fall into blindness, is beginning to realise the disaster that has befallen public opinion. She has just issued the kind of voluntarist communication she is famous for to try and make up for it, in the most flowery language: “Don’t go, it would be a connerie [expletive]!”
One thing’s for sure: at the end of July 2024, there’s a good chance that your favourite Parisian correspondent will choose not to listen to the wise advice of Madame le Maire, and will take to her heels.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/2024-olympic-games-a-parisian-nightmare