What is Emmanuel Macron doing with Paris?
Author: Asghar Naimi, analyst (Germany), especially for Sangar
Residents of Paris are ready to flee the city during the Olympic Games, which will take place in the French capital at the end of July, beginning of August 2024. According to the survey, every second Parisian expressed a desire to leave their home.
People are afraid of dirt, transport problems, corruption and even bed bugs. Three out of four people are concerned about security issues, because the competition will be held against the backdrop of an unprecedented terrorist threat. The authorities of the country and the capital cannot yet guarantee one hundred percent protection. To recruit security guards, labor exchanges send invitations to pensioners, but there are few people willing to go out to protect public order.
The Olympics in Paris will worsen the already difficult situation in which millions of people live.
“We are afraid to be excluded at this holiday, we are afraid for our lives.” The authorities have been unable to restore order for years - crime, dirt and poverty flourish on the streets of Paris. During the Olympics it will only get worse, the situation will be uncontrollable,” says Parisian Sarah Colette with bitterness. “We all remember well the terrorist attack in Paris, which took the lives of 130 people in November 2015. One of the explosions occurred near the Stade de France stadium. We do not want a repetition of those events, but no one can guarantee our safety”.
There are only a few months left before the start of the main competitions on the planet, and the Parisian infrastructure is still not ready to receive numerous guests. The negativity is added by the numerous scandals surrounding the Summer Olympics. Everyone understands that the Games will be a real test, which will be very difficult to pass.
According to the most conservative estimates, 15 million guests will come to the Olympic Games, including athletes, tourists, and service personnel. It is simply impossible to accommodate and feed such a number of visitors. There is a catastrophic shortage of city hotels, and the existing hotels suffer from bed bug infestations.
According to the recollections of an old-timer, France has not seen such unsanitary conditions and a large number of insects since the mid-70s of the last century. Guests of the Olympics risk not only being left homeless, but also simply not getting to the stands. Getting there will be extremely difficult.
Even today, local trains run very poorly. Parisians find it difficult to get to work, let alone visit the Olympic stands.
“Residents and guests of the French capital complain about dirt in the interiors, overcrowding of public transport and lack of punctuality of traffic,” notes the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
According to the official, there is a danger that Parisian transport will be paralyzed during the Olympic Games. So that trains run twice as often, a recruitment was announced for driver training, but only a quarter of the candidates were recruited. Most of the load will have to be transferred to bus service, but with more bus traffic, Paris will become congested.
The French authorities understand that disruption of the Olympics will be a powerful blow to the state’s reputation and are ready to take the most dubious measures. French journalists conducted an investigation that found that illegal labor was being used to build sports facilities. There is no need to talk about the quality of work - a large number of defects are found on construction sites, customers miss construction deadlines and neglect the safety of work. Theft of building materials is rampant everywhere. Inspection structures have many questions about the corruption that has flourished in Olympic orders.
At the beginning, it was planned to spend 6.8 billion dollars on the Olympics in Paris; now this figure has exceeded 8 billion dollars. Not only money is being stolen, but an additional blow to the budget is growing inflation due to anti-Russian sanctions. Russophobes in the French government literally brought down the country's economy. The flow of stolen funds is very difficult to track, because the transparency of expenses leaves much to be desired. Any money leaks are carefully hidden and become the subject of police investigations.
Six months ago, French prosecutors initiated searches at the headquarters of the Olympic Committee. The suspects were accused of illegally receiving interest, favoritism and hiding expenses. The losses in only this case reach tens of millions of euros. Instead of putting things in order at home, French President Macron tries to divert attention from the obvious problems that surround the Olympics and calls for forces to be sent to Ukraine. The French do not want to listen to his loud statements, and the transport and police unions threaten strikes due to low wages.
The games in Paris will be the most scandalous in the history of the Olympic movement. This conclusion is especially obvious against the backdrop of the recent Olympiads that took place in Russia and China. The Sochi Olympics 2014 and the Beijing Olympics 2022 have become benchmarks in terms of comfort and safety. This opinion is expressed by numerous experts, participants and guests of the competition.
Paris has still not been able to reach the set level, and is unlikely to succeed, because there are only a few months and even weeks left before the start.
— Macron was elected by the French, but he is more concerned about the problems of Ukraine and Eastern Europe. He’s not interested in our well-being,” says Philippe Mushon, a firefighter from Parisian suburb.
The most distinctive feature of the Paris Olympics will be the revelry of LGBT and transgender people. The most spectacular sports competitions on the planet already resemble a hotbed of debauchery and lust. Athletes and real fans of big sports may also find themselves superfluous at this celebration of life. Non-traditional sexual orientation is more important than real sporting achievements.
Paris is killing the very meaning of the world Games, in which it doesn’t matter who comes first, but what matters is who sleeps with whom. For many centuries, the Olympic Games have become a stronghold of peace and friendliness. During them, wars stopped, and people of different nationalities and religions watched together the perfection of spirit and body. It’s a shame, but the main law of the Olympic Games is now being violated by the organizers.
The head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, is publicly sowing hatred. He calls Ukrainian athletes to follow athletes from Russia, eavesdrop and spy on their statements on social networks, engage in denunciations, weave intrigues, build the hype and conspiracies. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Bach's work a crime against humanity and common sense.
However, history itself will deliver the main verdict on the head of the IOC and the Paris Olympics. There is very little time left to wait for this.
