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IOC awards 2030 Winter Olympics to French Alps ‘under conditions’

The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday awarded the 2030 Winter Games to the French Alps but under the condition that France gives financial commitments.

Published: 24 July 2024 10:50 CEST
IOC awards 2030 Winter Olympics to French Alps 'under conditions'
A map of the French Alps is displayed during the French Alps' bid for the 2030 Winter Games. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP

The decision came after President Emmanuel Macron told IOC members he would ask France’s next prime minister to give a financial “guarantee” for hosting the Games.

France is the only candidate to host the Games but the funding has been in question because there is no government in place following inconclusive snap elections.

But Macron told IOC members in Paris he would ask the prime minister who emerges from the ongoing talks to form a new government to make a “financial commitment” and also create an Olympic law.

Speaking two days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Summer Olympics, Macron said: “I want to confirm my full commitment and the full commitment of the French nation.

“I assure you I will ask the next prime minister to include not only this guarantee but also an Olympic law in the priorities of the new government.”

Macron said France wanted to show “the rest of the world that the Winter Games are not just history – and we are proud to be part of it – but part of our future.”

The 2023 bid has been put together by regional authorities in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and includes ski events in the Alps but also the use of the city of Nice to stage events including ice skating.

As with the Paris 2024 bid the emphasis is on re-using existing facilities, including those used when France hosted the Winter Olympics in 1992.

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POLITICS

French left agrees on consensus candidate for prime minister

Left-wing French parties said on Tuesday evening they had chosen a little-known economist as  prospective prime minister, after butting heads for weeks over a name since winning snap elections.

Published: 24 July 2024 09:08 CEST
French left agrees on consensus candidate for prime minister

The Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) pick Lucie Castets is an economist and senior civil servant with a background in “fighting tax evasion and financial crime” as well as campaigning for public services, the alliance said in a statement.

Working for the Paris city hall, Castets is a total unknown to the wider public – after the announcement, one of her colleagues helpfully tweeted about how to pronounce her name.

Although the consensus appears to put an end to infighting in the fractious grouping of Socialists, Greens, Communists and hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI), hurdles remain before Castets can be installed at the head of a possible new left-wing government.

The NFP has 193 seats in the Assemblée nationale lower house following July 7th’s second-round poll, against 164 for President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists and 143 for the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) and its allies.

But that is still well short of a majority in the 577-seat body, and any government needs to be able to survive a confidence vote in the chamber or risk immediate ejection.

The 37-year-old Castets told AFP she had accepted the nomination “with great humility but also great conviction”, believing herself a “serious and credible candidate” for PM.

Castets added that one of her top priorities would be to “repeal the pension reform” that Macron pushed through last year, triggering widespread protests and discontent, as well as a “major tax reform so everyone pays their fair share”.

It is President Macron himself who must nominate any new prime minister – and in a TV interview later on Tuesday he said that he would not name a new government until after the Paris Olympics are over.

Macron has left Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his ministers in place in a caretaker capacity, that seems likely to remain in place at least until the Olympics end on August 11th.

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