French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin revealed on Sunday that his country had excluded hundreds of applications from people who sought to participate as volunteers or security personnel in organizing the Olympic Games scheduled for this summer in the capital, Paris.
Darmanin explained, in an interview with the French LCI television channel, “We are examining the applications of all those who apply to participate in organizing the Olympic Games.”
He pointed out that among the volunteers, out of “the million tests scheduled to be conducted for volunteer requests, we have already conducted 180,000 tests.” We excluded 800 people, including 15 listed under the “most serious threats” file in national security records.
He explained, “There are people who wanted to register to be volunteers to carry the Olympic torch, and it is clear that their intentions are not good.” “There were extremists and also extreme environmental activists.”
Gerald Darmanin also revealed that the French security services “examined the files of 200,000 people working in private security.” More than a thousand of them were excluded “because they did not have a good history,” including 102 classified as “the most serious threats file.”
The minister was keen to clarify that not all of these people, who were excluded from participating in organizing the Olympic Games, are extremists. He declared: “It is not limited to extremists only, but there could be people who are radical environmental activists who want to extinguish the flame, in order to show their cause to the whole world.”
He stressed, “It is not limited to people who are potentially terrorists, but there are also people who want to strongly express their rejection of the opening ceremony.”
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