The Notre Dame Cathedral will reopen its doors this Saturday to welcome dozens of leaders from around the world in a ceremonial event chaired by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, five years after the tragic fire occurred, in an expected event that will take place under the watchful eye of a France immersed in political uncertainty.
Although the event will not be attended by Pope Francis, fifty heads of state and government are expected to attend, including the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, and the American first lady, Jill Biden. They will be joined by other presidents from Europe, Africa and Latin America, within an extensive guest list that also includes the Ukrainian Volodimir Zelensky.
The reopening ceremony, which comes just one day before the iconic Parisian Gothic temple reopens its doors to the public, will include speeches from both French President Emmanuel Macron and Ulrich himself. Macron will thus address a large number of internationally relevant figures, as well as senior French officials and officials, at a time of growing domestic political tension.
Later, on Sunday, there will be an eight-day reopening of the cathedral, so thousands of faithful and people will be able to visit the symbolic cathedral until 10:00 p.m. (local time) before Notre Dame returns to normal on December 16. , waiting for doubts to be cleared up about whether or not entry will finally be free for tourists.
Large police deployment
Saturday’s event, with which Macron hoped to make a big reappearance in Paris after his official trip to Saudi Arabia, has led to a large police deployment in the French capital, with the mobilization of some 6,000 police officers during Saturday and Sunday to guarantee security.
The political scenario has changed and the reopening now comes at a time of maximum tension for the president, who accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday, a day after the left and the extreme right supported a motion of censure against him.
For this weekend, the head of the French Police, Laurent Nuñez, has opted for an extensive police operation, similar to the one arranged during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games held in the city last July. Although he has ruled out that there are “specific threats” in relation to the event, he recalled that there continues to be a “high level of terrorist alert” in the city.
For this reason, the participation of soldiers from the Sentinel system is planned, an operation launched in 2015 to “protect and defend” the country. The device will also include the presence of the brigades in charge of security in the areas near the Seine River.
Likewise, access to the center of the capital and the areas surrounding the cathedral will be completely closed temporarily except for those invited to the event in the cathedral, which has a capacity of about 3,000 people.
Reconstruction work
Built 600 years before the Eiffel Tower, the cathedral is one of the most visited buildings in all of Europe and receives approximately 13 million visitors a year. The Archdiocese of Paris estimates that some 40,000 pilgrims, including 8,000 schoolchildren, will attend the temple over the next week for a visit that will last approximately 30 minutes.
Macron himself already visited Notre Dame last week and praised the restoration work on the temple. In this sense, he applauded the incredible “transformation of charcoal into art” in a televised tour that lasted two hours.
The reconstruction work has lasted for five years and seven months in which nearly 2,000 workers and 250 companies have had to face two main obstacles that led to the suspension of the work: the first due to a pollution problem in 2019 and the second due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
After the devastating fire, the authorities managed to raise some 850 million euros in donations from nearly 340,000 donors in 150 countries, who have contributed significantly to what is considered by many to be the “work of the century.”
After the cathedral caught fire as horrified Parisians looked on, Macron promised not only to rebuild it within five years but to “make it even more beautiful.” Now, from the Elysée, they assure that it is an “objective achieved.”
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