2024-03-28 15:52:32
The Polish Minister of Defense announced Thursday March 28 the sending of soldiers to France this summer to participate in securing the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. The Ministry of the Armed Forces prefers to speak of reinforcements, in particular dog teams.
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With the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Hamas and Israel as a backdrop, nothing is simple – to put it mildly – in the organization of the Paris Olympic Games. The security of an event bringing together 15,000 athletes and their delegations amid millions of spectators is the hottest issue for the French authorities and the organizing committee.
In this tense context and without knowing whether it was a trial balloon, a blunder or an extrapolation, the Polish Minister of Defense surprised everyone on Thursday March 28 by announcing that his country was going to send military reinforcements to help secure the Olympics, while France has returned to maximum alert in the face of the threat of attacks after that in Moscow last week.
“The Polish armed forces will join the international coalition set up by France to support the preparation and security of the Summer Olympic Games,” Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on the social network X, without specifying the number of soldiers deployed but referring to sniffer dogs and a “explosives detection and counter-terrorism” mission.
«Task force»
Stupor on the side of Paris where the Quai d’Orsay, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Elysée began with an eloquent silence when Libération asked for details on this “international coalition”, a word that Emmanuel Macron used at the end of October but it was then a question of fighting against… Hamas.
“Several foreign nations will strengthen us in certain critical areas, such as dog capabilities, where the needs are enormous” during the Olympics, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces then told AFP. “It is not at all an international coalition,” a diplomatic source then deciphered. Within the framework of bilateral defense agreements or a European mechanism, there may be sending of soldiers but it is not a coalition for the Olympic Games.
The spokesperson for the Polish army general staff, Joanna Klejszmit, subsequently spoke of the creation of a “task force for the Olympics”, without the “international” qualification.
Four months before the Olympics, the French government decided on Sunday, immediately after the attack on the Moscow concert hall where 143 people died, to raise the Vigipirate plan to its maximum level, “emergency attack”.
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