Emmanuel Macron had hoped that this would be a summer of sporting celebration for France, dominated by the first Paris Olympics for a century. Instead, events on track and field are now set to be eclipsed by political turmoil, following Mr Macron’s decision to call a snap parliamentary election following his humiliating defeat at the hands of the radical right in this weekend’s European polls.
In the lead-up to the Olympics - now less than 50 days away - Mr Macron had already been desperately searching for the feelgood factor. Having previously lamented the modest size of the national medal haul at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he used a recent television interview to demand a top-five finish for France this summer on home soil.
Just “healthy pressure”, according to the president. But the rhetoric was a sign that it is Mr Macron who is feeling the tension most. All host countries hope that an Olympics can inspire a national sense of unity and pride, while generating admiring applause from the world at large. But as the momentum of his second term drains away, amid unprecedented levels of support for Marine Le Pen and the radical right, Mr Macron is in dire need of a national moment to match the unexpected euphoria of London 2012.
So far, the portents are mixed. Tickets are sold out, but evidence of wider enthusiasm is limited. There was a needless row over plans – now abandoned – to remove traditional bookseller stalls from the banks of the Seine for the Games’ duration. Parisians have loudly complained about the prospect of numerous no-go areas for traffic, in what is likely to be a chronically overcrowded city. Reassurances from ministers that the €10bn event will more than pay for itself have been treated with scepticism. More insidiously – if predictably – Ms Le Pen and her allies on the far right have attacked plans to use the event to celebrate France’s modern, multicultural identity on the world stage.
Dwarfing all these issues is the question of security, amid fears of a resurgent terrorist threat, and fallout from the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Last week, a Chechen teenager was arrested in what the interior ministry claimed was “the first foiled terror attack” in relation to the Games. Intelligence officials suspect that Russia was responsible for a recent stunt in which five coffins draped in the tricolour were placed in front of the Eiffel Tower, bearing the message “French soldiers of Ukraine.”
As the countdown to the opening ceremony begins in earnest, organisers have pointed to a lukewarm build-up to London 2012, before what turned out to be one of the most successful Games of recent times. There is also the encouraging precedent of the last French summer Olympics, a hundred years ago.
Then, too, Parisians complained bitterly about the upheaval resulting from staging such an event. And then, too, in a society beset by economic crises following the first world war, the political horizon was darkening as extreme forces grew in influence. The Games were nevertheless judged a roaring success, setting new standards of competition and international sporting friendship. As he seeks to salvage a second term which looks in danger of ending ignominiously, Mr Macron urgently needs a revival of the spirit of 1924. Right now it seems unlikely.
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