Paris under Olympics becomes a nightmare for its inhabitants and workers

For those who live in Paris or plan to visit in the coming weeks, it will be difficult to fully enjoy the city. Indeed, the Olympic Games will officially begin on Friday the 26th, although the restrictions planned for the occasion have already been in place for several days. Several Olympic competitions will take place at some of the most iconic sites in the French capital: for example, one can watch beach volleyball matches under the Eiffel Tower, fencing events at the Grand Palais, archery events at the Hôtel des Invalides, and skateboarding events at the Place de la Concorde. The Olympic Games, one of the most watched events in the world, will on one hand be a very important opportunity for visibility for the city, but on the other hand, they will create numerous problems for the daily lives of Parisians and tourists. During the Olympic Games, it is estimated that about 800,000 people per day will arrive in the French capital, making travel more difficult. As a result, many Parisian businesses have decided to close or require their employees to work remotely, at least for the duration of the Olympic Games, which will end on Sunday, August 11. Between slowdowns, barricaded public spaces, and numerous strikes already planned, here's what awaits Parisians in the coming weeks.

Opening Ceremony and complications

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games will not take place in a stadium, as in previous editions: this year, athletes will parade aboard boats on the Seine, the river that runs through the French capital. The Olympic Games opening event will thus be decidedly spectacular and picturesque, but at the same time complicated to carry out smoothly, both logistically and in terms of security. During the opening ceremony, about 100,000 spectators who bought tickets will watch from the stands installed on the lower banks of the Seine, while more than 200,000 people will watch the parade for free from the upper banks. The most complicated part, in all likelihood, will be managing the movements of more than 300,000 people in a vast and scattered area, during an event that will be watched live by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. For security reasons, Mr. Macron had not ruled out a few months ago moving the ceremony to the Stade de France, but it was finally decided to maintain the original plan. The potential dangers could indeed be numerous: for this ceremony alone, more than 40,000 security agents are expected, and some residents have complained that there seem to be more police officers than tourists in the vicinity.

According to The Guardian, even Parisian tourism professionals are not very enthusiastic about the Olympic Games: there is concern that “French and foreign visitors will avoid the capital before and during the Games due to cost and crowds, and that the 15 million visitors expected for the Olympic and Paralympic Games will not fully offset the losses”. As the opening ceremony approaches, access to the entire area near the parade route, which will start from the Pont d'Austerlitz and end under the Eiffel Tower, has also been restricted: residents, workers, and tourists will need to request a QR code in advance to access the area. The streets concerned by the opening ceremony will then be closed to all means of transport. Making the situation more complex than it already is are the various strikes that have already been announced by different unions.

The Various Strikes Planned

The first, but not the least, is the strike at Paris airports on the day of the Olympic Games opening ceremony. The Force Ouvrière (FO) union of Paris airports (ADP), which holds the monopoly on the capital's and surrounding airports, has filed a strike notice for July 26, the day of the festivities. Very bad news given the number of visitors expected, but especially for Parisians who were planning to flee the city and go as far away from this folklore as possible. The protests are about salary demands deemed insufficient, demanding an increase in the bonus provided for in a previous agreement. Three days before the strike, no alternative or solution has been proposed, which would mean that many visitors will be forced to cancel their sports getaway.

The second also concerns the opening ceremony, but this time it is the dancers who are giving the organizers of the Games a hard time. Indeed, the Syndicat Français des Artistes Interprètes (SFA), the most important in the entertainment sector in France, has signed the strike order planned for July 26 as well, denouncing a “flagrant inequality” among the workers hired for the ceremony. This threat is not the first and probably not the last; a strike request has also been filed for August 28, the day of the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. The union of employees has clearly stated that it does not plan to negotiate with the event organization "Panama 24" which produces the show, following many discussions that did not reach a common ground. Security workers have also threatened to strike, due to difficult working conditions, such as the inability to go on vacation in the summer, and demand adequate compensation for the workload and enhanced restrictions. In short, a list of unpromising announcements that seems to grow day by day, threatening the smooth running of the event for which expectations are high. It remains to be seen how everything will unfold and in what state Paris will end up once the festivities are over.