PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron for the first time said on April 15 the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony could move from the River Seine to the national stadium in the event of a security threat.

Mr Macron said instead of teams sailing down the Seine on barges, the ceremony could be “limited to the Trocadero” building across the river from the Eiffel Tower or “even moved to the Stade de France”.

The Paris organisers have devised a ceremony that is unprecedented in Olympic history, as it breaks from the tradition of the Games opening in the main stadium.

But, with the Olympics taking part with war raging in Ukraine and in Gaza, the ceremony also leaves teams potentially vulnerable to attack – French authorities have, for example, mentioned the possibility of an attack by drones.

So far, organisers have denied the ceremony on July 26 could be moved to a different venue if authorities believe there is a possibility it will be targeted.

Mr Macron said he was confident the planned Games ceremony with huge crowds around the Seine, where some 160 boats would set off for a 6km journey, would be a huge success.

But France, he added, is not naive.

“This opening ceremony... is a world first. We can do it and we are going to do it,” Mr Macron said in an interview with BFMTV and RMC.

But he added “there are Plan Bs and Plan Cs”, including moving the ceremony to the Stade de France to the north of Paris, the main stadium for the Olympics where the rugby sevens and athletics will be held.

“We will analyse this in real time,” he added.

He then tried – and failed – to convince a mother, worried about security risks, to let her son go to the River Seine ceremony.

“If there is one place where your son will be safe, it will be there,” Mr Macron told the mother, who asked her question during the radio interview.

“Let him go, it’s once every 100 years, the Olympics.”

The unconvinced mother responded that she hoped her son would work that day and be unable to attend.

Moving the ceremony from the Seine would be a huge undertaking and would deprive the Paris Olympics of its defining image.

More than 300,000 spectators are expected to be present for the ceremony, with another 200,000 watching from buildings along the Seine.

So far, all countries have said they plan to take part in the open-air river parade, including the most risk-averse such as the United States and Israel.

The French leader, who gave his interview from Paris’ Grand Palais museum, which has just been refurbished to host the fencing and taekwondo competitions, added that he had not changed his mind about swimming in the Seine.

Paris has been working on cleaning up the Seine so that people can swim in it again, as was the case during the 1900 Paris Olympics.

But a sewer problem last summer led to the cancellation of a pre-Olympics swimming event.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is also promising to swim in the Seine – more than three decades after her predecessor Jacques Chirac famously promised to do it but never did. 

Mr Macron also said he would do “everything possible” to have an Olympic truce during the Games.

The truce is a historic tradition that peace reigns during the Olympics.

“We want to work towards an Olympic truce and I think it is an occasion for me to engage with a lot of our partners,” he said.

The Paralympics take place after the Olympics, beginning on Aug 28.

Mr Macron said he had a target of France finishing in the top five in the medal table for the Olympics and among the top eight nations for the Paralympics.

AFP, REUTERS