After the unprecedented score of the extreme right in the first round of the legislative elections, the Olympic Games find themselves plunged into uncertainty due to a clear risk of political change, three and a half weeks before their opening in the presence of a hundred foreign dignitaries and cameras from all over the world.
Will the Olympic Games be one of the “prides of France” as Emmanuel Macron stated in his wishes for 2024? Carrying a message of peace and unity, will the Olympic Games take place in a France torn apart and led by the extreme right? In the midst of an institutional crisis? With which government?
Officially, everything continues as before.
On Tuesday, the head of the organizing committee (Cojo), Tony Estanguet, will give the press a tour of the Olympic village set up to welcome athletes from around the world in Saint-Denis, and on Wednesday a visit to the Olympic site at La Concorde is on the menu, while nearly 3,000 people are busy organizing the Olympic summer at the Cojo headquarters.
“The event will take place,” they keep repeating to the organizing committee, which could have done without this dissolution decided a month and a half before the Olympics. They just acknowledge that there is “no more bandwidth” to communicate about the event.
The Olympic torch relay, which finally launched the adventure in Marseille a month before the European elections, continues to attract the French but is largely overshadowed by the political crisis. The flame will be in Paris on July 14 and will pass, among other places, in front of the National Assembly.
“Spoil the party”
Since the announcement of the dissolution, the Cojo has been reassuring by insisting on “the continuity of the State”, relying on the police prefects (Laurent Nunez), the regional prefects (Marc Guillaume) and the interministerial delegate to the Olympic Games (Michel Cadot).
While assuring that “Paris is ready to host its Games and the Olympic celebrations”, Anne Hidalgo is angry. For the PS mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Macron took the risk of “spoiling the celebrations” of the Olympic Games, “this gathering of humanity around sport”. If by chance the leader of the National Rally (RN) Jordan Bardella were to gain access to Matignon, she has already said that she would not be in “any photo” with him.
While securing this event is crucial, in a very complex geopolitical context, weighed down by threats of attacks, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has already warned that he would not be there in the event of a defeat of the presidential camp. He is currently fighting in his constituency in Tourcoing (North). “Everything is already organized, everyone is at their post,” he assured last week.
The Olympic machine has in fact been running for years, both at the level of the organizing committee and within the State.
Disinformation
So the fear lies more in “public order disturbances”, several sources reported to AFP, while the Olympic Games are also an opportunity for each organising country to promote its image.
Also in the background is disinformation, which loves election periods.
In early June, a Microsoft watchdog estimated that Russia had increased the scale of its disinformation campaign targeting the Olympics, raising fears of violence during the event. Due to the war in Ukraine, Russian athletes are only allowed to participate under conditions and will be in very limited numbers.
Asked by AFP about the risks of cyberattacks and computer security a few days after the dissolution, an IT security manager for one of the Olympic stakeholders nodded and rolled his eyes. Maximum tension.
Another consequence of this troubled political period is the economy, which is taking a hit. One of the leaders of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME), Eric Chevée, spoke on BFM Business on Monday about the “three months of lost growth” that the political renewal will bring, including the “Olympic Games effect”.
