2023-12-15 05:00:00
Time.news – Rumors on how Paris will be able to handle the extraordinary tourist flows expected during the next Olympics are certainly tormenting the residents’ nights. The most anticipated sporting event in the world, the 33rd edition of the Summer Olympic Games (26 July – 11 August 2024), continues to spark discussion among local authorities.
Already last week, what was worrying were the utterances of Valérie Pécresse, president for Mobility of the Ile-de-France Region (the Paris metropolitan region) which invited “all those who can work remotely” to do so during the Paris Games to avoid overloading the urban public transport network. Until a few weeks earlier, Pécresse herself had presented investment plans to strengthen transport in view of the big event on social media and in the main newspapers. And provide the capital with an excellent network that is in step with the times. Maybe she’s not so sure anymore?
#JOP2024 : @IDFmobilites will increase the transport offer for the Olympic and Paralympic Games #Paris2024.
I refuse to allow these additional costs to be paid by Ile-de-France residents. Who will pay what between July 20 and September 8? It’s here ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/N6ZCBvFLR2
— Valérie Pécresse (@vpecresse) November 27, 2023
Other recommendations directed to residents and formulated by local authorities include (in addition to teleworking) the invitation to “go on holiday” on the key days of the games and, obviously, to avoid travel in the city that is not absolutely necessary. What threw the Parisians into despair, however, was the position taken (later retracted) by the prefect from Ile-de-FranceMarc Guillaume, in principle favorable to the adoption of Olympic “confinement” measures (in French the lockdown is translated as “confinement”) to deal with the situation that should become apparent.
© DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP
Paris 2024
Despite the reassurances given by ‘insiders’, the regional prefect had ‘only’ expressed his concerns in a letter to the Ministry of Transport. Guillaume himself had to silence the rumors according to which in his letter to the minister he had also broached the possibility of imposing a ‘lockdown’ on residents. His clarification arrived promptly on X, on Thursday, in a post to This passage he had given rise to
“We will be ready for the Olympics”, Valérie Pécresse tried to reassure, dispelling the fears expressed by the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, Marc Guillaume.
Regarding the various rumors of an “Olympic confinement”, Marc Guillaume was categorical on X (formerly Twitter) denying, in his post “any use or notion of ‘Olympic confinement’, in particular in his letter to the Ministry of Transport” .
The fear of another ‘lockdown’ after the one sadly linked to the outbreak of the pandemic has, for now, subsided. However, a thorny controversy remains on the table which does not honor the great Ville Lumiere: many Parisians, especially on social media, argue that only a ‘lockdown’ would avoid the collapse of public transport, which is not ready – according to many – to welcome flows of visitors so massive in so few days. According to estimates provided by the Tourist Office of the city of Paris, the next, highly anticipated, edition of the Olympic Games will bring a total of almost 16 million visitors to the French capital.
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#Olympics #Paris #Olympic #lockdown