Sawt Falasteen - Paris Olympics: Macron rules booksellers should stay

Hundreds of booksellers, who operate from little dark green boxes by the river, were set to be temporarily removed ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony on the Seine on July 26.

The head of the Cultural Association of Booksellers of Paris had likened the removal efforts to a "tooth extraction" and the organisation announced last month that it would launch legal efforts to stop the process.

Macron "has asked the interior minister and the Paris prefect's office that all of the booksellers are preserved and that none of them are forced to move," a statement from the president's office said.

The decision came after "no consensual and reassuring solution" could be found with the traders, who have been a feature of Parisian life for some 150 years.

Already struggling to bounce back from shutdowns during the Covid pandemic and a longer-run loss of interest from locals, the booksellers are desperate to profit from the arrival of an estimated 16 million tourists for the Games.

The Paris Olympics are set to begin with national teams sailing down a 6.0-kilometre (four-mile) stretch of the Seine on more than 100 boats -- the first time the traditional opening ceremony has been held outside of the main stadium.

The city's police, overseen by the government-appointed prefect, had ordered the removal of some 600 of the 900 book kiosks over security concerns amid fears that they could be used to conceal explosive devices.

The format of the open-air ceremony has created a huge challenge for security forces who will need to protect athletes, VIPs and spectators in a vast area of the centre of Paris.

Moving the booksellers was also seen as a way of increasing the space for spectators on the banks of the river where around 300,000 ticketed fans are set to watch the show.

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST