French popular support for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has plummeted over the past three months.
Only 58 percent of the French consider the summer games (July 26 to August 11) to be a good idea. This was the result of a survey by the Odoxa Institute on behalf of the newspaper “Le Figar”. In March, the response was 69 percent, in September 2021 it was 76 percent.
Odoxa cites rising costs and a “feeling” that the population is poorly prepared for next year’s event as an explanation for the growing rejection of the Olympics. According to the survey, fewer French believe in the benefits of the games for their own country. Enthusiasm for the competitions is also dwindling. Only 52 percent of all French want to follow the Olympic Games.
The poll was conducted on June 21-22 after police raided the Organizing Committee headquarters in Saint-Denis. According to the Paris public prosecutor’s office, the raid, which also took place in the offices of the Solideo construction company responsible for the games, involved allegations of “illegal conflicts of interest, misuse of public funds and nepotism”.
A day later, the French Court of Auditors reported that the costs for the games would be significantly exceeded – due to an “incomprehensible lack of understanding of the complexity of the IOC specifications”. The report says the Paris bid committee “underestimated” the cost of hosting the Games at the time of the bid and warned cuts may be needed before next summer.
The budget for the COJO organizing committee, which was 3.3 billion euros at the time of the successful application in 2017, rose to 4.4 billion euros by the end of 2022.