Olympic Games Live: Latest News & Events from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Live Today
France has already disrupted four violent protests against the Olympic Games.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin explained Wednesday that four violent action projects that were being prepared for the Olympic Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11, have so far been disrupted.
In an interview with BFMTV, Darmanin explained that the fourth case being investigated is that of an 18-year-old man arrested on Tuesday in the Gironde department (with its capital in Bordeaux) who had a “violent action project.”
The minister, on the contrary, confirmed that the arrest announced yesterday of a Russian citizen who was being followed by French secret services is explained by the fact that they believe that “he was going to organize destabilizing operations,” “espionage,” possibly “manipulation of information.” He specified that this person had arrived in France “recently.”
He also attributed the distribution of a video on social media calling for the killing of Israeli athletes who are planning to participate in the Paris Olympics to a Russian destabilization operation.
The safety of these 99 Israeli athletes is one of the major security concerns his office is raising, and he recalled that they will be guarded at all times by two special law enforcement units: the Police Raid and the Gendarmerie GIGN.
“The Israeli team is under special protection,” but it is not the only one, he noted, before noting that special attention will also be paid to delegations from, for example, the United States, Iran, Palestine or Ukraine.
The minister noted that a thousand police officers will be guarding the football match that Israel and Mali are set to play at the Parc des Princes in Paris this evening, so the competition will begin before the opening ceremony of the games, which will take place on Friday afternoon.
The ceremony, which is expected to be attended by more than 300,000 people and will be held for the first time outside the stadium, namely on a stretch of the River Seine that runs through the center of Paris, will see the participation of 45,000 mobilized police officers and gendarmes.