POLITICS – Would you like another scoop of “real life”? A week after the official closing of the Paris 2024 Games, the extinguishing of the Olympic flame and the passing of the flags in Los Angeles, France is enjoying a final moment of (sporting) communion this Saturday, September 14 on the Champs-Élysées.
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Conceived and announced by Emmanuel Macron, this “Grand Parade” will bring together many athletes, several thousand volunteers, agents and other stakeholders in the games, and some 70,000 spectators on the legendary Parisian avenue. This will be followed by a medal ceremony (for Republicans, this time). Then a free concert that should turn into a giant karaoke.
In short, this is the final gasp of the ” real life “, according to the expression of Emmanuel Macron at the end of the Olympic fortnight, when he wanted this festive atmosphere to never end: ” we don’t want life to resume its rights. Because deep down, life is what we have lived these last few weeks. »
Olympic Games, a crazy success
We understand. For the head of state, too, this summer has turned into an enchanted interlude. Emmanuel Macron, who has committed all or almost all of his political credit by making the Olympic Games one of the only clear milestones of his second term, can rejoice: the month of “French pride” that he hoped for in his last wishes to the French has indeed taken place.
The doubts of the most gloomy or refractory minds were swept away in a few hours, the time of the opening ceremony, of Celine Dion at the top of the Eiffel Tower and of the irresistible Olympic sites in the heart of the capital.
Investing the Seine to parade the athletes? A security and megalomaniacal madness for some, which became an iconic spectacle, hailed by the international press as the most beautiful of opening ceremonies. Organizing a major sporting competition, but inaccessible? Too expensive and elitist in the eyes of part of the political class, these games shone thanks to the popular fervor that has never wavered, in the fan zones and on the competition sites.
To sum up, critical voices – in the media and the political sphere – have fallen silent as the striking images have accumulated in this giant family album. The photos of cyclists climbing the crowded Butte Montmartre will remain. As will those of surfers on the wave of Teahupoo, or BMXers on Place de la Concorde. And now?
The flame already extinguished
The golden parenthesis will definitely close. And reality will not take long to catch up with the head of state, if it has not already done so. The political truce he declared after his (failed) dissolution of the National Assembly has ended in a clatter, and his desire to keep the Olympic flame and spirit alive already makes little sense.
« This spirit of games shows us a very simple thing. (…) When we are all together, we are unbeatable “, he explained at the end of July, as an ambition launched to the attention of the political class. And he added: ” I don’t want it to be forgotten, because is the interest of the nation worth less than the Olympic and Paralympic Games? No.”
Since then, Emmanuel Macron has decided to appoint Michel Barnier to Matignon, this figure of the right, member of the Republicans and in the inner circle for 50 years. Enough to extinguish the lights of concord. At the National Rally, they are delighted to hold the government in their hands. On the left, they are now denouncing ” a stolen election ” in the media, even in the street.
Cruel differences with this Olympic spirit that will have won over the country for several weeks. Emmanuel Macron, who lost most of his power during the legislative elections, must have already realized this last Sunday, when he was booed by part of the public at the Stade de France for the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
The head of state wanted to take advantage of a last moment of jubilation a week later to announce with great fanfare measures concerning the legacy of the Games. He finally did so the previous evening in the columns of the Parisiannotably announcing a new “National Sports Day”.
But the enchanted interlude will have to end, and real life will have to resume. The little extra time on the Champs-Élysées won’t change anything.
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