A poll revealed that some 73% of people in France support Paris' bid to host the 2024 Olympics, according to Dominique Vidalon of REUTERS. The Odoxa poll for radio station RTL and online gaming group Winamax of 1,008 people was conducted from June 21-22. Paris and L.A. are the only two cities bidding to stage the 2024 Olympics, and the French capital ran "a series of events over the weekend to promote its bid." On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron "visited an outdoor tennis court set up on the Alexandre III bridge across the Seine and hit a few balls with the players" (REUTERS, 6/25). LE MONDE's Bouchez & Pécout reported on the internet, several petitions have collected thousands of signatures denouncing the Games as "too expensive, too pollutant and too elitist." The Hungarian anti-Games movement, "Nolimpia," attracted 260,000 signatures and "caused the downfall" of the Budapest 2024 bid in February. In Paris, those opposed to the Games "never really mobilized" like they did in Budapest, or even in Boston and Hamburg, which also withdrew from bidding for the '24 event. Nanterre University professor Olivier Le Noé said that the anti-Games Parisians are "weakly organized." He said, "They have not succeeded in ensuring the convergence of several causes around environmental, ethical and economical arguments." In the political realm, the anti-Games movement "also had difficulty developing." In '15, only one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris refused Mayor Anne Hidalgo's wish to "fully engage Paris" toward an official bid (LE MONDE, 6/23).
