The end of consensus? Less than four years before the Paris 2024 Games, the elected officials of Seine-Saint-Denis are unhappy. And they no longer refrain from saying it, consigning to oblivion the beautiful political balance displayed during the candidacy phase.
A handful of them held a press conference (photo above) in front of a café opposite the Stade de France on Thursday September 10. With a defensive message to the Games organizing committee: leave to Seine-Saint-Denis what is due to Seine-Saint-Denis.
At the head of the battalion, Stéphane Troussel, the president of the department. At his side, the mayors of Bourget (Jean-Baptiste Borsali), Dugny (Quentin Gesell), and Saint-Denis (Mathieu Hanotin).
The reason for their initiative today is more rumor than proven facts. Since the announcement by Tony Estanguet, the president of the OCOG, of the desire of the organizing team to reduce the costs of the Games by 3 to 400 million euros (around 10% of the budget), all scenarios have been circulating. . Most of them display a new map of sites where Seine-Saint-Denis would lose part of its sports.
The daily Team, in particular, carried out at the end of last week the exercise of a revised and corrected map of the Olympic system. Few certainties and many working hypotheses, but the result gave the elected officials of the department a cold sweat. He suggests that volleyball would leave Le Bourget and that racing swimming, initially planned in a temporary structure near the future Olympic aquatic center of Saint-Denis, would be moved to Nanterre, in Hauts-de-Seine.
Worse still, the mayor of Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin, understands that the opening ceremony will no longer be held at the Stade de France. The rumor, again. But the chosen one takes the lead: “ It's a signal. The opening is a symbol and symbols are more important to us than to Paris or Versailles. »
Stéphane Troussel explains it: “We have been hearing this little music of reducing the Games on our territory for several months. » Jean-Baptiste Borsali, the mayor of Bourget, insists: “If we let this happen, this logic of unraveling will continue. »
Stéphane Troussel recognizes it, the economic context requires the organizers to review their copy. The Paris 2024 marketing program was not, by far, the most advanced of the files before the COVID-19 pandemic. The long-term effects of the health crisis will make discussions with potential partners even more delicate.
But the president of Seine-Saint-Denis refuses to see his territory become, in his own words, the “ project adjustment variable. "" There are red lines that must not be crossed”, he insists.
A few days before a meeting of its office, scheduled for September 15, the COJO Paris 2024 is seeking to calm things down. He assures that the concerns of the elected officials of Seine-Saint-Denis are based only on avenues of work. He repeats that the department will receive the athletes’ village, “ symbol of the universality of the Games”.
But more will be needed to reassure the most worried. Stéphane Troussel announced Thursday September 10 that he wanted to appeal to Jean Castex, the Prime Minister, former interministerial delegate to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “ The government has just announced a recovery plan of 100 billion euros, it seems to me that there are possibilities to support the transformation of the Seine Saint-Denis, suggests the president of the department. I know what empty promises are. I remind you that the problem of the Olympic swimming pool should have been resolved a long time ago. We had promised that it would be built in Aubervilliers whether or not Paris obtains the 2012 Games. We are still waiting. »
