French apathy and cost concerns dampen mayors’ bid to stoke Olympic fervour
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Torchbearer Nicolas-Marie Daru at the World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, in France's Normandy region, on May 30.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NANTES – When a group of mayors paid tens of thousands of euros each to bring the Olympic torch to their towns along France’s Atlantic coast, a row erupted over whether the cost represented value for money at a time when public spending is under pressure.
Franck Louvrier, the conservative mayor of La Baule-Escoublac, a well-heeled coastal resort in the western Loire-Atlantique administrative department which will host the torch on June 5 for an overnight stop, said he hoped the flame’s arrival would “excite the taste buds” and boost off-season tourism.
But the resistance he and other Loire Atlantique mayors have met reflects a broader French apathy about the upcoming Games, as well as concerns about the cost of hosting the Paris event.
In an interview in his office, overlooking La Baule’s yawning Atlantic bay, Louvrier said the €60,000 (S$88,000) paid to the Paris Organising Committee for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games had made little dent in the town’s roughly €60 million annual budget.
“There was no credible argument for missing this global event,” said Louvrier. “Refusing it would have been a major mistake for everyone.”
Nearly 40 per cent of French people are indifferent about the Olympics, while 37 per cent have a negative view of the Games, according to a May 31 Ifop poll. Less than a quarter of respondents were enthusiastic about the event, the survey showed, even if past Olympics suggest the mood will lift once the Games begin on July 26.
Not everyone in La Baule, home to some 17,000 people, cheered Louvrier's decision.
Anne Boye, an opposition socialist member of La Baule’s council, said Louvrier’s outlay was indefensible, especially as the town’s 15 minutes of fame would likely be overshadowed by the 80th anniversary of D-Day, taking place on June 6 in nearby Normandy.
“It’s very expensive, for very, very little,” she said.
Some in La Baule said the torch’s arrival provided a welcome respite from grim global news.
Martine Wibaux, a retiree walking along the promenade by La Baule’s beach, was less upbeat. She criticised the billboards set up around town to announce the torch’s arrival.
“Mayor Franck Louvrier must be excited,” she said. “It looks like the Pope is coming!”
France is under pressure to cut spending. Standard & Poor’s on May 31 became the second of the three big ratings agencies to lower its view on French debt in just over a year.
The decision by Louvrier and three other local mayors to go it alone came after Louise Pahun, a Greens party official in charge of sport for Loire Atlantique, decided against paying €180,000 to bring the torch to the department.
According to the Games organisers, around a third of France’s 101 departments will not host the torch.
Laurent Turquois, the mayor of Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire who joined forces with Louvrier, said he had faced “lots of protest at the city council” when he spent €60,000 to bring the torch to his town of 30,000 people.
He denounced “dogmatic and bad faith” arguments of naysayers and said he ran a tight ship financially.
“Is it too expensive?” he asked. “What other opportunity will residents have to see the Olympic flame?” REUTERS
