France is heading into an electoral campaign just weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics, and organisers are worried about managing polls amidst preparations for the Games. They also have questions about the impact of a change in government if the presidential party loses.
“France is used to running elections and it will do it again, we will have a new government and a new parliament, and everyone will support the Olympic Games,” assured Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee.
He was speaking in Paris on Monday, the day after French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved parliament following the far right’s historic showing in European elections.
“It is a democratic process that will not disturb the Games,” said Bach. “We feel the clear enthusiasm here. We see a great unity in favour of the Olympic Games in Paris.”
The city has “worked a lot, we are ready”, said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who was with Bach when she assured reporters that “nothing will ruin the party”.
The Socialist mayor criticised Macron’s decision to call new elections so close to the Games – the second of the two rounds of voting, on 7 July, comes three weeks before the 26 July opening ceremony.
“A dissolution right before the Olympic Games is extremely troubling, but like all political leaders I will be on the ground,” Hidalgo said.
Running campaigns, organising Olympics
The electoral campaign will require the attention of public services and security forces, who are already mobilised to help set up the Games.
"It’s a additional burden and constraint in terms of security,” Frédéric Lauze, secretary general of the police chiefs' union, told Franceinfo.
“Polling stations and ballot boxes will need to be secured, public order assured and there might be gatherings and protests.”
The elections come with France in the midst of a political crisis, with the far right winning more than 40 percent of votes in the EU parliament elections.
If Macron’s Renaissance party loses in the legislative elections, he will be required to appoint a prime minister from a rival faction, opening up a period of instability as a new government is formed.
And in the midst of the transition, many issues related to the Olympics remain – including ongoing budget negotiations, transportation concerns and, of course, security.
Security questions
“If the minister and the teams change, it fundamentally disrupts the security of the Olympic Games and raises a number of problems,” Frédéric Péchenard, the vice president of the conservative Republicains in the Ile-de-France region, told Franceinfo.
Police unions are concerned about securing the opening ceremony, which is being planned in the open, on the Seine river.
The task will fall to tens of thousands of police and security forces, under the purview of the interior minister – who may change with a new government.
Current Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin brushed off such concerns, saying that he does not engage with “political fiction”.
New government, political tensions
“The people of France have to ask themselves who they want to run the country, but also who they want to welcome the world,” said Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, quoted in Le Parisien.
Unlikely to keep her position in a government run by the far right, she insisted on her own “values of universalism” and openness to others, in a swipe at the anti-immigration and often xenophobic National Rally.
Local leaders involved in the organisation of the Games rejected the prospect of inviting Rally leader Jordan Bardella, who would become prime minister if the party wins enough seats in the elections, to the Olympic opening.
“Today my issue is to prevent Mr Bardella from becoming prime minister and being present at the ceremony,” Stéphane Troussel, the Socialist president of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, which will host some of the Olympic sites, told Le Monde.
As mayor of Paris, Hidalgo said she would “welcome the world” for the Olympics, alongside President Macron and the heads of the International Olympic Committee and Paris 2024 Organising Committee.
She insisted: “We will do the democratic work that needs to be done.”
