Gérald Darmanin said 35,000 police officers will be placed on the streets from now until 11 August.
ADVERTISEMENTThe French interior minister has said there are no concrete threats to the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
Three days before the start of the 2024 Olympics, Gerard Darmanin said about 1,000 people have been blocked from attending the Olympics amid suspicion of potential “spying" as part of security challenges faced to make the Paris Games safe for thousands of athletes and millions of fans.
About one million background checks have scrutinized Olympic volunteers, workers and others involved in the games as well as applicants for passes to enter Paris’ most tightly controlled security zone along the Seine’s banks.
The checks blocked about 5,000 people from attending, Darmanin said Tuesday.
Out of those, “there are 1,000 people whom we suspect of foreign interference — we can say spying,” he added.
Others were flagged for suspected Islamic radicalisation, left- or right-wing political extremism, significant criminal records and other security concerns, he said.
“These people, we didn’t think it was a good idea for them to be stadium stewards, volunteers or that they accompany (sports) teams. Out of one million people, 5,000 is not a lot and it shows the deep work of the Interior ministry," he said.
Darmanin, who is staying on in a caretaker role at the interior ministry until a new government is formed in the wake of legislative elections earlier this month, has repeatedly pointed to suspicions of Russia-backed interference.
“We’re here to make sure... that sport isn’t used for spying, for cyber-attacks or to criticize and sometimes even lie about France and the French,” Darmanin said.
He added that “interfering and manipulating information” does not come only from Russia but also from some other countries, which he did not name.
“That’s why we’re on alert, and we want them to know that we’re not naive,” he said.
Paris is deploying 35,000 police officers each day for the Olympics, which run from Friday to 11 August, with a peak of 45,000 for the opening ceremony on the Seine River.
In addition, 10,000 soldiers from the Sentinelle mission are taking part in security operations in the Paris region.
France is also getting help from more than 40 countries that together have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.
“Of course, we’re particularly protective of the Ukrainian team, which is obviously under considerable threat,” Darmanin said.
ADVERTISEMENTThe interior minister had previously revealed that Israeli athletes would be protected 24 hours a day by the elite police unit GIGN, which is in charge of the protection of government officials and counterterrorism, among other things.
In a handwritten note to tens of thousands of police officers, firefighters, bomb disposal experts, intelligence services agents and private security personnel, Darmanin said “the largest global event that a country can organize” is “finally” here after four years of preparation, but he noted that it faced unprecedented security challenges.
“Your task will not be easy,” Darmanin said in a letter posted on the social platform X late Monday.
Paris has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks, and international tensions are high because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
ADVERTISEMENTOlympic organisers also have cyberattack concerns, while rights campaigners and games critics are worried about Paris’ use of AI-equipped surveillance technology and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security that they fear may remain in place beyond the Olympics.
The games will open with a lavish, open-air ceremony Friday stretching for kilometres along the Seine.
Rather than build an Olympic park with venues grouped together outside of the city centre, like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or London in 2012, Paris has chosen to host many of the events in the heart of the bustling capital of 2 million inhabitants, with others dotted around suburbs that house millions more.
Putting temporary sports arenas in public spaces and staging the opening ceremony along the Seine makes those protections more complex.
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