Gérald Darmanin announces “around 300,000 spectators” for the opening ceremony, a figure revised downwards

The Minister of the Interior announced on Wednesday that around 300,000 people could attend the event organized on the banks of the Seine, half as many as the number of 600,000 initially mentioned.

The winter sales last a few more days, but the drop of almost 50% announced by the government on Wednesday January 31 will not make anyone happy. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on France 2 in “Les 4 vérités” that the number of spectators who will be able to attend the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, on July 26 on the quays of the Seine, would “around 300,000” people.

“The idea is that there will be 100,000 people on the lower quays”with paid tickets, and “more than 220,000 people on the high quays”, with free tickets. A figure well below the 600,000 spectators, including 500,000 on the high quays, mentioned by Gérald Darmanin in October 2022. Re-interviewed in May 2023, during the signing of the security protocol for the ceremony, the minister repeated the number of 600 000. Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez had mentioned “spring” to confirm these assessments, which may evolve depending on the state of the terrorist threat.

For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium, but outside, on the Seine. Along six kilometers of the river, 115 boats will sail, with delegations of athletes, from the Austerlitz bridge to that of Jena, in the presence of heads of state and government from around the world, and 45,000 members of the forces of order present to supervise the ceremony.