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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

6,000 French police to welcome Olympic torch amid bonus boost

Some 6,000 police will be deployed for the arrival of the Olympic flame in France next month, authorities said Friday as they announced bonuses for security forces to avert threatened industrial action.

Published: 27 April 2024 08:57 CEST
6,000 French police to welcome Olympic torch amid bonus boost
Greece's Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos presents the Olympic torch to the President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, Tony Estangue on July 26th. Photo: Angelos Tzorttzinis/AFP

The police presence in the southern port of Marseille when the torch arrives from Greece on May 8 will be bigger than for a visit to the city by Pope Francis in September last year.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said an elite tactical unit, bomb disposal teams, nautical police and an anti-drone team would be in place when a 19th-century sailing boat, the Belem, enters the port. Organisers expect 150,000 people to be watching.

The extra forces will be in addition to local police and firefighters.

The torch was handed over to French Olympics organisers in Athens on Friday and the Belem will set sail on Saturday. The Paris Olympics start on July 26.

Darmanin said more than 1,000 boats that will complete the journey with the Belem will all be checked.

The minister said there was no “specific threat” to the torch event, but that law enforcement was prepared for scenarios including a “radical Islamism” attack along with far-right and far-left extremists.

France is on a heightened Olympics security alert. A 16-year-old boy was formally charged Friday after he allegedly said on social media he wanted to make an explosive belt and die a martyr at the Paris Games, anti-terrorism prosecutors said.

Investigators said the youth had been looking at “Jihadist propaganda” online.

Authorities had also feared action by police after unions threatened to disrupt the torch relay around the country, accusing the government of blocking promised bonuses.

The government announced Friday that a 50-euro monthly bonus would start for some police from July 1, which would be increased to 100 euros a month in 2025.

Unions said that Paris region police on duty during the Olympics would get a 1,900-euro bonus. This was confirmed in a letter sent to unions on Wednesday.

Unions welcomed the move but the Alliance Police Nationale said it would remain “vigilant” and could still order action over the taxation of the bonuses and overtime hours.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

150,000 people expected as Olympic flame arrives in France

The Olympic flame arrives in France on Wednesday where a highly choreographed ceremony and a crowd of 150,000 people will be a first major test for organisers and security forces ahead of the 2024 Paris Games.

Published: 8 May 2024 09:50 CEST
150,000 people expected as Olympic flame arrives in France

The transfer of the flame onshore in the southern port of Marseille will mark the start of a 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) torch relay across mainland France and the country’s far-flung overseas territories.

Organisers are hoping the first public spectacle of their much-hyped “iconic” Olympics — just 79 days away — will help build excitement after a damaging row about ticket prices and ongoing concerns about security.

“It’s something we’ve been waiting for for a very long time,” chief organiser Tony Estanguet told reporters on Monday. “It’s here. One hundred years after the last Games, the Games are coming home.”

When the Paris opening ceremony begins on July 26th, it will be the first time the city has played host for a century after previous editions in 1924 and 1900.

France sees itself at the heart of the modern Olympic movement after a French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the idea of the Games as practised by the Greeks until the 4th century BC.

After the Covid-hit edition in Tokyo in 2021 and the corruption-tainted Rio de Janeiro version in 2016, the Paris Olympics are seen as an important moment for the sporting extravaganza as a whole.

A measure of public excitement will come when the flame is handed over on Wednesday evening from the Belem, a historic 19th-century French tall ship that has made a 12-day trip from Greece.

“We are going to do beautiful, grandiose, sober and accessible at the same time,” Marseille mayor Benoit Payan promised ahead of the ceremony, while recalling how his gritty port city was founded by Greek traders in 600 BC.

This photograph shows the temporary infrastructure under construction at the Vieux-Port (Old Port), set to welcome the three-masted ship Belem bearing the Olympic torch. (Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP)

‘Beautiful, grandiose’

Over 1,000 other boats will accompany the Belem’s approach to the harbour and organisers expect around 150,000 people to witness the flame come ashore in the revamped Marseille marina, which will host the sailing events during the Olympics.

Fireworks and a free concert will complete the show which will be broadcast live on French TV.

In the background, around 6,000 members of the security forces are expected to be on duty as part of extensive security plans put in place at a time when the country is on its highest terror alert.

“It’s completely unprecedented for the national police to mobilise so many people on the same day at the same place,” regional police coordinator Cedric Esson told reporters on Monday.

The honour of being the first torch bearer will fall to four-time Olympic medal-winning swimmer Florent Manaudou.

Other stars scheduled to take part in the parade, which continues in Marseille on Thursday, include NBA-winning basketball player Tony Parker and footballer Didier Drogba, as well as charity and entertainment figures.

One beach-cleaning charity has boycotted the ceremony to protest Olympics sponsor Coca-Cola, while there is no scheduled role for Marseille’s most famous sporting son, football legend Zinedine Zidane.

General view of the new track of the Stade de France, the Olympic Stadium of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in Saint-Denis, North of Paris. (Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP)

Opening ceremony

Extremely tight security will be a constant feature as the torch travels through more than 450 French towns and cities, and passes by dozens of tourist attractions including the Mont Saint Michel.

Around 200 security forces are set to be positioned permanently around it, including an anti-terror SWAT team and anti-drone operatives.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has referred to the risk of protests, including from far-left groups or environmental activists such as Extinction Rebellion.

Organisers have promised a “spectacular” and “iconic” Olympics, with much of the sport set to take place in temporary venues around the City of Light including at the Eiffel Tower and the Invalides.

In the absence of a much-feared security scare, the opening ceremony will take place in boats on the river Seine in a radical departure from past Games which have opened in the main stadium.

All of the major infrastructure has been completed with only two new permanent sporting venues built in a bid to reduce the financial cost and carbon emissions of the global extravaganza.

The idea of the torch rally harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games.

The Paris Olympics will run from July 26th-August 11th, followed by the Paralympics from August 28th-September 8th.

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