Paris Olympics: Organizational enthusiasm and embezzlement

The Paris Olympics is the sporting event of the year and all eyes are on Paris. There is a euphoria of the organizers about the successes, but the problems with the criminal record are also starting to appear. The organizers of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris will offer free invitations to a number of 222,000 spectators chosen by the authorities, announced the French Minister of the Interior. Municipalities and other organizing entities will each receive a number of invitations to distribute. Guests will have to go through a security check process overseen by the intelligence services before they can attend the event on the upper quays of the Seine. These 222,000 seats are in addition to the 104,000 for paying spectators who will watch the ceremony on the lower quays. The revised total of 326,000 spectators represents almost half of the 600,000 spectators that were foreseen in the original plan. The Minister stated that he reserves the right, if necessary, to revise this decreasing number again.

On the other hand, the police raided the offices of the Paris City Hall as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged embezzlement of public funds following Mayor Anne Hidalgo's trip to Tahiti last year, a trip made under the pretext of preparing for the Olympic Games that the French capital is hosting this summer , said judicial sources cited by the French press. Inspectors from the financial brigade and magistrates from the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) searched the Paris City Hall and its annexes. The investigation was opened last November following a complaint filed by an anti-corruption association, AC!. The suspicions are of bribery and misappropriation of public funds and refer to "the trip to Tahiti of Mrs. Anne Hidalgo and a delegation of the Paris City Hall", the judicial source stated. Socialist Anne Hidalgo responded in November to criticism of her trip to French Polynesia by publishing a list of meetings she attended and, although she did not visit the venue for the surfing competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which will take place in Tahiti, said his deputy in charge of sports did. Hidalgo's visit was billed as a facility inspection, but no photos were released, and his political opponents said it was actually a vacation. This investigation is "a natural consequence of the report sent to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office and was continued today by the voluntary presentation by the municipality of the additional documents requested", the Paris municipality stated in a press release, adding that it "has already presented voluntarily the supporting documents" related to these trips. According to the anti-corruption association that filed the complaint, the mayor of Paris "took advantage of this opportunity (the trip to French Polynesia - n.r.) to visit his daughter, who lives on an island near Tahiti". She was accompanied by two deputies, as well as her husband, the complaint states. "The question immediately arises as to who paid for this trip", stated the association.

According to the Paris City Hall, the transport expenses for the Parisian delegation consisting of six people (three councilors and three staff members) amounted to 40,955 euros, and the costs of accommodation and meals to 18,545 euros. The ethics commission of the City Hall has already exonerated the mayor of any wrongdoing.