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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Dancers call off strike threat to Paris Olympics ceremony

Hundreds of dancers who were threatening to strike during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday have called off their protest after receiving a new pay offer, their union said.

Published: 24 July 2024 16:39 CEST
Dancers call off strike threat to Paris Olympics ceremony
The Paris 2024 logo is seen on the stands from where spectators will watch the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris, on July 23, 2024. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)

The performers secured a rise in compensation for broadcasting rights during a final round of talks with Paris 2024 organisers on Wednesday, the SFA-CGT union said in a statement.

“This period has concluded with a victory, which although it is not total, is nonetheless a response to the urgent issues raised,” it said.

The union, which says it represents around 10 percent of the 3,000 performers involved in the opening ceremony, filed a strike notice last week over what it said were “outrageous disparities” in pay between dancers.

The deal agreed on Wednesday means that the lowest-paid dancers would receive between €160 to €240 extra for their performance on Friday evening, a union member involved in the negotiations told AFP.

Some of them had protested on Monday during rehearsals by the river Seine by stopping and holding their fists aloft for eight minutes.

READ MORE: Where to watch the Paris Olympics opening ceremony

The threat was an unwelcome development for organisers and risked deepening France’s reputation for labour disputes just as the eyes of the world fall on Paris for the start of the Games.

A whole host of French public sector workers have threatened strikes or stopped work ahead of the Olympics to demand bonuses for working over the July 26-August 11 event, which coincides with the summer holidays.

One-off payments of up to €1,900 have been agreed for police and municipal workers in Paris.

The opening ceremony is set to take place over a six-kilometre stretch of the river Seine, with around 6,000-7,000 athletes expected to sail down the river on 85 boats.

It will be the first time a summer Olympics has opened outside of the main athletics stadium.

A small union at Paris airport operator ADP has also filed a strike notice for Friday.

ADP management reached an agreement last week with most labour groups to end a dispute over Olympic bonuses.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

‘We did it!’: France breathes sigh of relief after Olympics ceremony

The concept had been derided as overly ambitious and the location criticised as a prime security risk. But after years of preparation, France could Saturday breathe a sigh of relief -- it had pulled off the Olympic opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Games.

Published: 27 July 2024 09:34 CEST
'We did it!': France breathes sigh of relief after Olympics ceremony

Opting for a ceremony on the waters of the River Seine rather than the standard option of a stadium was a theatrical gesture typical of President Emmanuel Macron but which brought considerable risks.

The day was also far from ideal. It began with news of three attacks on signal infrastructure on the French railway network which will disrupt travel for the next days and raises the prospect of a coordinated bid by so far unknown individuals to upset the Games.

Meanwhile the weather conspired against organisers and spectators, with an unseasonable deluge drenching performers, athletes and onlookers protected by nothing more than plastic ponchos.

French former football player Zinedine Zidane (C) carries the Olympic flame at the Trocadero during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (Photo by Jeff PACHOUD / AFP)

But the show went on.

It lasted a marathon four hours, reaching a crescendo with a spectacular climax as the Olympic flame soared into the sky aboard a cauldron tethered to a balloon and Celine Dion serenaded Paris with an Edith Piaf song from the Eiffel Tower.

The eclectic show put on by director Thomas Jolly was not to everyone’s taste — the Times of London called it “surreal” and a “damp squib” but no-one could doubt its originality and daring.

The cauldron, with the Olympic flame lit, lifts off while attached to a balloon during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games near the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris on July 26, 2024. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)

And, above all, the mass event had passed off safely without incident. Parisians and visitors will now again be able to enjoy most of the city without brandishing QR codes to get through police barriers put up for the event that had put much of the riverside embankment into security lockdown over the last days.

READ ALSO: How to watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics on TV in France

“With sabotage of railway installations in the morning and pouring rain in the evening, the opening day of the Olympics was chaotic but ended with a grandiose ceremony which broke all the rules,” daily Liberation wrote on the front page of its Saturday edition.

A grab of a video released by the Olympic Broadcasting Services shows Canadian Singer Celine Dion performing on the Eiffel Tower during the opening ceremony. (Photo by various sources / AFP) 

‘Creative genius’

Images of police snipers deployed on roofs provided a stark reminder of the constant security threat faced by France which has been hit by a spate of attacks by Islamist extremists since 2015.

The ceremony also marked a boost for Macron after two turbulent months that saw him call a snap parliamentary election that at one point raised the prospect of the far-right winning and forming a new government.

Lights illuminate the Eiffel Tower during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)

That did not materialise but the country remains in political paralysis after the polls and the president is generally seen as a weakened figure with three years of his mandate to run.

READ ALSO: Essential French vocabulary for the Olympic Games

“Thanks to Thomas Jolly and his creative genius for this grandiose ceremony. Thank you to the artists for this unique and magical moment. Thank you to the police and emergency services, agents and volunteers,” Macron wrote in an unusually triumphant post on X.

“Thank you to everyone who believed in it. We’ll still be talking about in 100 years! We did it!”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin added: “We did it! After four years of intense work to prepare for the world’s biggest sport event, we have never been prouder of our security forces.”

Extreme-right MEP Marion Marechal harrumphed on X that she was left to “desperately seek to celebrate the values of sport and the beauty of France in the midst of such crude woke propaganda.”

‘Can’t mess up’

Some spectators were frustrated by the rain and crowds obscuring the view but Jolly’s concept appeared focused above all on the millions watching worldwide on TV at home.

Floriane Issert, a Gendarmerie non-commissioned officer of the National Gendarmerie, rides on a metal horse up the Seine river past the Cassation Court and Conciergerie, during the opening ceremony. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

It also skilfully played on themes of French culture and history but with a modern twist and a plethora of in-jokes for those who wanted to find them. Jolly also celebrated modern France’s diversity, highlighting artists of immigrant origin.

“The opening ceremony is really the moment when you can’t mess up. It’s a successful gamble,” communications specialist Philippe Moreau Chevrolet told AFP.

“He (Macron) has very successfully carried out his communications operation for the country and for himself: it’s a moment of coming together for the nation… and he hasn’t had many in seven years in power.”

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