The anti-Olympic movement struggles to rally – Technologist

Gérald Darmanin has named his target several times in recent months. On January 22, the interior minister detailed the installation, from May 8, of a bubble of 100 police officers around the Olympic flame to protect it against “any form of public disorder” during its journey. He stressed that the risk of disruption emanated from “ultra-left environmentalists,” citing the movements Soulèvements de la Terre (“Uprisings of the Earth), Dernière Rénovation (“Last Renovation”) and Saccage 2024 (“Ransacking 2024”).

On Tuesday, April 9, in an interview with Le Parisien, Darmanin again cited these groups, explaining, in particular, that among the people who signed up to be volunteers or torchbearers but were rejected after an administrative investigation were environmental activists. The minister clearly warned that he would not let any protests disrupt the progress of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Since the launch of the Paris bid in 2015, the anti-Olympic movement has not been very vocal. While previous editions saw the emergence of minority but visible protest movements in both London and Tokyo, or against their city’s bid in Boston and Hamburg, the actions of collectives opposed to hosting the Paris Games have remained limited. “It’s very different from what we’ve seen elsewhere, where mobilization has never been massive, but where there have been very numerous and very effective collectives,” said Natsuko Sasaki, a member of Saccage 2024, who lived through the Tokyo Games.

In early February, a few dozen people gathered in front of the Olympic Village in Saint-Denis (north of Paris), calling into question the 14,000 studios planned for the athletes, at a time when the suburb is short on housing. In mid-March, banners were unfurled in front of the media village, rejecting “the concrete Olympics.” More recently, on April 2, the Gare d’Austerlitz train station was the scene of a small, festive parade denouncing the helicopter-taxis that Aéroports de Paris plan to deploy during the events.

‘No investment for the poorest’

The groups behind these actions include Extinction Rebellion (XR), Youth for Planet, PEPS (For a Popular and Social Ecology) and Saccage 2024, as well as radical environmental and autonomous groups opposed to the organization of this major sporting event. “With the Olympics, billions are being put on the table while there is no investment for the poorest. We’re throwing a party for the world’s rich and excluding the working classes,” argued Ritchy Thibault, spokesman for the PEPS collective.

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