The River Seine poop protest, explained

The 2024 Summer Olympics are right around the corner. All over the world, countries are gearing up to send their best athletes to Paris to compete against each other in one of the most patriotic events of the year.

For many people there’s nothing that gets their home nation pride going like cheering on their athletes in sports they’ve never heard of. But this year, Parisians are taking the opposite approach with a viral protest instead.

The French government has spent 1.5 billion euros to clean the famous River Seine that runs through the city. The goal is that Olympic athletes will be able to use the river for Olympic water sports, whether that be rowing, swimming, or diving. The plan was that on June 23, one month before the Olympics kick off on July 26, Paris’s Mayor Anne Hildago and French President Emmanuel Macron would swim in the river to prove how clean and safe it was for Olympic athletes.

This plan has been interrupted by a city-wide protest of Parisians defecating in the river as an act of defiance toward their government and their allocation of funds. What started as a social media hashtag #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin has turned into a website and movement spanning outside of Paris.

Unfortunately, the Mayor’s dip in the river has been postponed to get through the election season, according to Le Monde. This could be in hopes of an election outcome that may dissuade protestors but Indy 100 also reports that high levels of waste and sewage are still being found in the river.

It seems that the mass defecation has now also been delayed to coincide with the rescheduled swim which is meant to be on July 7.

Le Monde reports that Paris is spending upwards of 4 billion euros to bring the Olympics to Paris. The amid a year-long farmers strike, protests from women due to a far-right government, and protests from workers due to Macron’s new pension plan. It seems this act of protest will be a commentary on how the government spends its money, not on its citizens, but on an Olympic spectacle.

According to BBC, this includes cleaning out a river that hasn’t been legal to swim in since 1923. This is due to increased sewage and industrial sanitation because of an ever-growing population.

Despite the public’s protest of this act of government spending, the French government believes this event will make the city more money, according to the Olympic website its projected to bring in between 6 and 11 billion euros.

Come July 7, we’ll see if that spending has gone to waste and is ruined by mass defecation.

If there’s one thing about the French, they know how to protest.