No offense to Gérald Darmanin, the last time there was a parade on the Seine did not go back to the reign of Louis XV. The Ministry of the Interior referred to the monarch known as “the Beloved” when presenting, on Tuesday March 5, to senators, the exceptional security arrangements for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (OG). “Since Louis

The archives of Le Monde obviously do not go back to the 18th century, but an article dated June 20, 1990, shows that there had already been, in the not-so-distant past, a procession on the Parisian river. It was on the occasion of the June 18 celebrations of the 50th anniversary of General de Gaulle’s call to resistance, which culminated in the late evening on the Seine near the Louvre. “For the first time, on the river and on its banks, a magnificent sound and light show took place closed by (…) the largest fireworks display ever set off in the capital,” wrote the authors of the article .

For an hour, different artistic paintings – “a grandiose reconstruction” – had flattered the role of De Gaulle and Free France in the liberation of the country, in front of “an immense crowd of Parisians, at least one hundred thousand”, underlined the journalists of the World. Agence France-Presse also reported, in a dispatch, 3,000 extras and 200 boats at a cost estimated at 32 million francs (approximately the equivalent of 8.5 million euros).

The event did not completely go unnoticed, it even made the front page of Paris Match on June 28 and the headlines of the television news (France 3’s 19/20, from the 8th minute), who talked about a barge over 100 meters long as a giant historical scene.

A perilous exercise

Certainly, these 200 boats were not supposed to go “in the same direction”, as the host of Beauvau puts forward for comparison with the parade which took place under Louis XV.

But coordinating, in the middle of 3,000 performers, a nautical ballet of 200 skiffs coasting in all directions between the 700 meters which separate the Pont-Neuf from the Pont du Carrousel – the perimeter of the show on June 18, 1990 – must have been an exercise. as perilous as that of choreographing the parade of 180 boats which will transport on July 26 over 6 kilometers, between the bridges of Austerlitz and Jena, the athletes of more than 200 Olympic delegations and their following caravan (television teams, services of security, rescue, officials, media, partners, etc.).

The Olympic opening ceremony nonetheless remains a logistical and, above all, security challenge. The terrorist threat, particularly by means of drones, is obviously more present today than it was thirty-four years ago, due to a particularly flammable international context.

Gérald Darmanin therefore disappointed the organizers by lowering the gauge on Tuesday to just over 320,000 spectators – paying or by invitation – when, just a few months ago, there was talk of authorizing double that number. For a ceremony where it is still difficult to guess the “emotion” and the popular celebration described by the journalists of Le Monde on June 18, 1990.