With the coming Olympics in France, worries about terrorism are at the forefront in the minds of many.
But France’s president says he’s prepared.
MSM reports:
President Emmanuel Macron said France is prepared to move the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony away from the Seine River should the security situation require it.
He cited deadly extremist attacks that hit Paris in 2015 as an example of the type of severe crisis that could force a rethink of the July 26 ceremony.
“You’re 15 days from the Olympic Games. You have a series of terrorist attacks. What do you do? Well, you don’t organize [a ceremony] on the Seine,” he said in a television interview with France 5 on Wednesday.
“Since we are professional, there are obviously plan Bs, plan Cs, et cetera,” Macron said. “You have to be prepared for everything.”
Paris is due to host the Olympic Games from July 26 to August 11, 2024.
The opening ceremony is due to take place on the Seine instead of inside the Olympic stadium, and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to watch from the banks of the river that flows through Paris.
It would be the first Summer Games opening ceremony held outside of a usual stadium setting.
“We are preparing an opening ceremony that is unique, which I hope will make the French very proud,” Macron told the public broadcaster. “It will be a moment of beauty, of real art, of celebrating sport and our values, with the Seine and the capital as the theater.”
High Alert
MSM continued, “France raised its security alert to the highest level after a knife-wielding attacker stabbed a teacher to death outside a school in the north of the country in October.”
“Earlier this month, a German tourist was killed in a suspected terror attack close to the Eiffel Tower in central Paris. The perpetrator has reportedly pledged allegiance to the so-called ‘Islamic State,” the story noted.
