LA BAUL-ESCOUBLAC, France (Reuters) – When mayors paid tens of thousands of euros each to transport the Olympic torch to towns on France's Atlantic coast, a row erupted over whether the costs were worth it at a time when public spending is under pressure.
Franck Levrier, the conservative mayor of La Baule-Escoublac, a wealthy coastal resort in the western Loire-Atlantique department where the torch will stay overnight on Wednesday, said he hoped the torch's arrival would “excite the taste buds” and boost tourism in the off-season.
But the resistance he and other Loire-Atlantique mayors have encountered reflects a general lack of interest in the upcoming Olympics in France and concerns about the cost of hosting the Paris Games.
In an interview in his office overlooking La Baule's large Atlantic bay, Louvrier said the 60,000 euros ($65,028) paid to the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee (COJOP) had little impact on the city's annual budget of about 60 million euros.
“There was no justification for missing this global event,” Mr. Louvrier said in his glass-walled corner office decorated with Playmobil figures of Napoleon. “It would have been a huge mistake on everyone's part to not attend.”
About 40% of French people are indifferent to the Olympics and 37% have a negative view of them, according to an Ifop poll released on May 31. Past Olympics have led some to predict that moods will lift when the games begin on July 26, but the survey found that less than a quarter of respondents are enthusiastic about the games.
In La Baule, a town of about 17,000 people, not everyone welcomed Levrier's decision.
Anne Boyet, an opposition Socialist member of La Baule city council, said Mr. Louvrier's spending was inexcusable, especially since the town's 15 minutes of fame is likely to be overshadowed by the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings this week in nearby Normandy.
“It's very expensive, but it's very scarce,” she said. “TV stations will go elsewhere.”
France under pressure to cut spending
Some in La Baule said the torch's arrival provided a welcome respite from the gloomy world news.
Martine Wibault, a retiree walking along La Baule's seafront promenade, was less optimistic. She criticized the signs that had been put up around town to announce the torch's arrival.
“Mayor Frank Louvrier will be thrilled,” she said. “It's like the Pope is coming!”
France is under pressure to cut spending, and Standard & Poor's last week became the second of the three major rating agencies to downgrade French debt in just over a year.
Mayor Levrier and three other mayors decided to act on their own after Louise Paun, the Loire-Atlantique department's sports secretary and a senior Green party official, rejected paying COJOP 180,000 euros to transport the torch to her department.
Around a third of France's 101 departments will not host the torch, according to COJOP.
Pahun criticized COJOP for a lack of transparency about how the funds are being used. He wrote to the company in March 2022 and told Reuters he asked for more details but did not receive a response.
COJOP did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Laurent Turquoy, the mayor of Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire, who worked with Louvrier, said he “received a lot of protests in the city council” when he spent 60,000 euros to bring the torch to his city of 30,000 people.
He denounced his opponents' “arbitrary and disingenuous” claims and said he was operating financially on a tight budget.
“Isn't that too expensive?” he asked. “What other opportunities will residents have to see the Olympic flame?”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pinault; Writing by Gabriel Stargard; Editing by Claire Fallon)
Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.
Photos to see – May 2024
