{"id":61263,"date":"2026-08-04T12:02:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/61263\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:02:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:02:46","slug":"macrons-team-seeks-saudi-funding-for-manga-theme-park-near-paris-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/61263\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron\u2019s team seeks Saudi funding for manga theme park near Paris \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Elys\u00e9e did not respond to questions about the project&#8217;s details, and Qiddiya Investment Company did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Qiddiya Managing Director Abdullah Aldawood met with Macron at the last two Choose France summits, which are events organized to attract foreign investment in the country. At the event, the summit\u2019s press kit referred to, in cryptic terms, the signing of a memorandum of understanding aimed at \u201cexploring a major tourism and entertainment project in France.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks before Choose France this year, Aldawood met with Val\u00e9rie P\u00e9cresse, president of the \u00cele-de-France region, where the abandoned Mirapolis site is located. Aldawood also met with teams from Business France and Choose Paris Region \u2014 the region\u2019s economic development agency \u2014 said a person who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2281549179-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8837146\"  \/>Val\u00e9rie P\u00e9cresse is pictured at the Elys\u00e9e Palace in Paris on May 31, 2026. | Magali Cohen\/Hans Lucas\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In a sign that the project is progressing well, late last month officials representing \u00cele-de-France, which includes Paris, met with representatives from 10 key ministries, electricity grid operator RTE and public transport operator \u00cele-de-France Mobilit\u00e9s to discuss the park\u2019s possible revival.<\/p>\n<p>The agenda for this meeting, which POLITICO saw, included discussions about the governance of the future project, transportation infrastructure, energy requirements and land acquisition issues. The gathering was chaired by Macron&#8217;s former Chief of Staff Georges-Fran\u00e7ois Leclerc, who is now the prefect of the \u00cele-de-France region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had no information before receiving the invitation to the meeting, but we understand that the Elys\u00e9e wants to step up the pressure on this issue,\u201d said a ministerial adviser who took part in the discussions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Elys\u00e9e did not respond to questions about the project&#8217;s details, and Qiddiya Investment Company did not respond&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14127,7798,1304,38019,36,544,5,4313,3309,2079,5447,11813,4791,30,1628,422,286,187,38020],"class_list":["post-61263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-competition","tag-development","tag-electricity","tag-electricity-grid","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-energy","tag-france","tag-industry","tag-infrastructure","tag-investment","tag-jacques-chirac","tag-mohammed-bin-salman","tag-negotiations","tag-paris","tag-public-transport","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-tourism","tag-united-states","tag-valerie-pecresse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}