8:00 a.m.
, April 25, 2020
Here is his forum: “On Monday April 13, the President of the Republic gave us a glimpse of the first milestone of an end to the health crisis that we have been going through for almost two months. And with the prospect of an end to confinement, that of a resumption But with what priorities? While caregivers are still fighting foot by foot with the pandemic, the priority of the moment must remain the protection of the health of all. Let us therefore continue to limit travel to employees in only strictly essential sectors in these times of crisis: to eat, to protect, to heal. For all the others, my conviction is to keep telling them “let’s stay with us”, as long as there are risks of contamination.
President of an intercommunality of nine cities in the North of the Parisian metropolis and craftsman of the first hour of the candidature for the JOP of Paris 2024, I hear that the question of the recovery can be of particular importance, in particular for the TPE and SMEs which, without resumption of activity, run the risk of bankruptcy. However, the reality of mayors and local elected officials is quite different: finding enough masks to protect all front-line workers.
“
The Games can contribute to the essential catch-up to which the inhabitants of our department are entitled
“
Tomorrow, when the protection of employees can be guaranteed, the time will come to resume our activities. It will then be necessary to decide what the priorities are: what are the sites which, interrupted during the pandemic, must restart first? In this order of priorities, I resolutely place those that meet the most basic needs of people: housing, schools, transport, health centers, public spaces.
And what about the JOPs? We engaged our territory in the adventure of the JOP because, beyond the feast of two 15-day days that represents the hosting of Olympic competitions, the Games leave a legacy for the inhabitants of the territory. The COVID 19 pandemic cruelly reminded us of the lack of public investment in our department.
The Games can contribute to the essential catch-up to which the inhabitants of our department are entitled. It is for this reason that we defended the idea of an Athlete Village designed as a real city district, with housing accessible to all, but also public facilities and places of activities. As such, the sites linked to the Olympic Games are just as priority as the other sites. Neither more nor less than the others.
“
The health crisis, and with it the confinement, has shaken up all the calendars: electoral, school, economic
“
But in order for the benefits of this event to be truly positive for the inhabitants, we defended the requirement of an exemplary heritage, in ecological, energy, social and societal terms. However, the health crisis, and with it the confinement, has shaken all the calendars: electoral, school, economic. The suspension of construction sites for several weeks further tightens the schedules for the construction of Olympic equipment.
If the merits of the project as a necessary legacy for the population are not called into question by the crisis, the uncertainty that this poses on the date of resumption of construction sites leaves us to think that the commitments that we had taken collectively could not be held: urgency never rhymes with exemplarity. And we know only too well the effects of such pressure: rough labor laws and regulations, botched consultation, local economic spinoffs and sacrificed ecological systems.
Our engagement in the immense adventure of the JOPs was conditioned by these requirements. At a time when the health crisis is revealing a little more the inequalities from which our department is suffering, it is not conceivable that we will give up the ambition of exemplarity which animated us, both in the preparation of the Games and in their heritage.”
–
