French President Emmanuel Macron and his colleagues they are outraged by the chaotic and ineffective planning 2030 Winter Olympics.
There are growing concerns in Paris that the inept management of such a prestigious event will further damage the reputation of France, which in recent years has gained a reputation as a country that is difficult to manage and careless in financial matters.
Recent turmoil includes the resignations in December and January of the chief operating officers and communications officers of the Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (COJOP). The reason was said to be differences of opinion on strategic issues. COJOP President Edgar Grospiran said on Sunday that the organization's CEO is also in the process of resigning from his position.
French Sports Minister Marina Ferrari responded by convening an extraordinary meeting to ensure “a rapid and full clarification of the governance and stability of the organization.”
According to two former Macron advisers who were granted anonymity, the French president had privately express your outrage earlier this month because of how much the situation had gotten worse. An official involved in Olympic planning admits that the Elysée believes that “enough is enough” of chaos at COJOP.
– They're all clowns. We need to regain control, says one former adviser.
Grospiron is currently in a difficult situation as the names of potential successors have begun circulating in the French press, including two former prime ministers: Michel Barnier, who helped organize the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, and Jean Castex.
Edgar Grospiron, president of the Organizing Committee of the 2030 Winter Olympic Games in France, during a press conference in Le Grand Bornand, December 3, 2025.ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP
Macron has not yet called on Grospiron, a former Olympic freestyle skiing champion, to step down, according to a current presidential adviser. But the president's trusted man, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, plans to play a bigger role in the process and hopes to “bring order,” says another current Macron adviser.
COJOP did not respond to an email from POLITICO seeking comment. The International Olympic Committee referred POLITICO to a Feb. 4 statement from the committee in which it said all its teams “are fully mobilized and focused on their mission.”
A bold commitment
Grospiron committed last year to the 2030 Winter Olympics will be the cheapest in historybut this will require attracting sponsors who have so far been reticent. COJOP has not provided any information about sponsors yet.
— Private partners see the bad publicity surrounding the Games and do not have the courage to get involved, says a person involved in planning the Games.
Cutting costs will be difficult given the logistical challenges of the event. Unlike Paris 2024, which was held mainly in the French capital, the 2030 Winter Olympics will span an area of 600 km, encompassing many French jurisdictions.
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Local government officials are already fighting over who will host individual events, and the situation has become so complicated that last fall, officials were forced to delay the publication of the map of Olympic venues.
Laurent Wauquiez, an MP for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region who previously led the conservative Republican party (Les Republicains), pushed for his constituency to host most of the events.
The president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Renaud Muselier, admits to POLITICO that he and Wauquiez clashed before agreeing to split some events between their jurisdictions.
Musilier emphasizes that they finally agreed that the alpine skiing competitions would be held in the north, and the freestyle skiing and ice competitions would be organized in the south.
But according to a parliamentary aide who has been closely following planning for the 2030 Games, Wauquiez has pushed to exclude Val d'Isere's famous ski resorts from the event at the expense of those in his area that are closer to other proposed Olympic venues — which angered people like Barnierwho lived for years near Val d'Isere.
Wauquiez did not respond to POLITICO's request for comment.
Those defending COJOP say there is still plenty of time to get things right. For now, the committee has turned to one of the architects of the successful 2024 Paris Olympics, Etienne Thobois, to develop a new roadmap for the future.
“COJOP will report the results of this procedure and calls on all parties concerned to ensure the smooth conduct of the mission in the spirit of shared responsibility,” the organization said in a statement on February 4.
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