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How Macron's 'insane' Olympics event along the Seine happened

When early advocates of hosting an extraordinary Olympics opening event along the river Seine first pitched the concept to the thenhead of Paris police, he was deadset against it. It's madness, Didier Lallement said in 2021, according to 2 sources, citing the vast logistical and security difficulties of tossing such an enthusiastic occasion in a city still marked by a series of 2015 Islamist attacks that killed 130 individuals. With the spectacular floating parade due to set off along the Seine on Friday evening, President Emmanuel Macron will hope Lallement's doubts show illfounded.

At the beginning, it appeared to be a crazy and not extremely serious idea, Macron told foreign press reporters at the Elysee palace on Monday. However we chose it was the ideal moment to deliver this crazy idea and make it real. France has presented its greatest ever security operation to secure the Games and its blockbuster opening ceremony. Officials say there is no direct risk to the Games, however say they have so far foiled 2 thought attacks.

Approximately 3 billion individuals are anticipated to tune in for the opening event, in which athletes will cruise 3 1/2 miles down the Seine against among the world's most stunning backdrops.

Organisers have mainly kept their plans for the event under wraps, but Thomas Jolly, the artistic director for the occasion, spoke today of a big fresco celebrating the relationship that Paris and France preserves with the world.

Lallement's workplace, the General Secretariat for the Sea where he now works, did not right away react to a request for comment.

Whether France pulls it off stays to be seen. But simply getting every one on board with the idea pitched by Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet to Macron in 2019 was a significant fight.

The seed of the idea pertained to Estanguet, a three-time Olympics canoeing champion, after he saw the opening ceremony of the 2018 Youth Olympics, which was kept in the streets of Buenos Aires and participated in by more than 200,000 individuals, his advisors stated.

Estanguet wanted to toss away the rule book for Paris 2024, they said. So he charged Paris 2024 Executive Director Thierry Reboul, a former Air France marketing chief now in charge of the Olympic ceremony, with discovering an original concept.

Motivation struck in 2019, when Reboul was walking along the Seine - the opening ceremony would happen on the river.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo informed she was keen from the start. However not everyone concurred. Aside from Lallement, cops unions were likewise against the high-risk river event, union authorities stated.

However, Macron was immediately seduced by the concept, and pressed sceptical cops and intelligence officials to make it happen, sources near the president stated.

I don't need to know what you think, I would like to know how we can do it', a source near to Macron remembered him stating.

Macron pledged to give cops more headcount to secure the event. He also commissioned a private expediency report which in 2021 concluded the Seine event was possible under particular conditions, with less spectators and more cops.

Macron made the announcement public in late 2021 to guarantee there would be no going back, the source near him said, but has actually said there are back-up strategies if the event can't continue.

NO STONE LEFT UNTURNED

Numerous foreign delegations revealed scepticism, and at one point some even threatened to cancel their attendance, another French source with understanding of the matter stated.

They were told no stone would be left unturned, the source said, adding that French authorities chose to be over zealous by releasing 45,000 police to secure the occasion, more than triple what is used for a regular Bastille Day event in the entire Paris area.

It's substantial, however it's the little exaggeration that was required so we're protected and positive, and we have actually plainly assured the 200 delegations that gave their green light, the source said.

In the end, thousands of manholes were wielded shut on the route, cellars and Airbnb leasings along the river were browsed, and even the catacombs were checked, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said this week. Macron tossed one final captain hook with his choice to dissolve parliament less than two months before the opening ceremony. The resulting election has actually yielded a caretaker government, however authorities say preparation is the same.

Mayor Hidalgo, a Socialist who rarely has a kind word for Macron's pro-business government, needed to work hand in hand with Darmanin, a conservative, to make the ceremony happen.

I told him: 'We prosper together, or we stop working together, she informed .

(source: Reuters)