France's hosting of the XXXIII Summer Olympics in Paris was a dazzling success that captivated the world, but the country woke up with a heavy political hangover, as Elizabeth Pinault and Michel Ross note in their analytical article for Reuters. After Sunday's closing ceremony of this year's edition of the largest sports forum "the beautiful dream" of France (as one ordinary Frenchwoman who spoke to Reuters called it) is fading to give way to political deadlock, the authors from the world agency point out.
The country's President Emmanuel Macron must deal with the political crisis he created, which he swept under the carpet during the Olympics, Reuters emphasizes. Talks about state posts and budget cuts are ahead, and in any case there will be cause for anger from voters.
"Now we have to wake up from this beautiful dream", 64-year-old Christine Fran told Reuters, interviewed at the largest fan zone in Paris during the Olympics, called Club "France". "It's a pity that we will return to our everyday lives - without a government and with quarrels in parliament. While here everything was a joy that we shared with each other,“ she adds.
The "France" Club was housed in a former slaughterhouse in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, which had served as a pavilion for an agricultural fair, mainly for livestock, during national and international livestock exhibitions. The fair was located in the "Villet" park, on the "Place de la Fontaine des Lions".
The sports timelessness for politicians
The euphoria generated by sports in Paris, and throughout France, came at a convenient moment to calm the political situation in the country, which has never managed to form a government after early parliamentary elections. They were held just weeks before the start of the Games. President Macron convened them after dissolving the National Assembly (the lower house of the French parliament). Many analysts described his move as a "political gamble," Reuters notes.
For most observers, the victory of the left with the "New Popular Front" (NPF) coalition was a surprise, after polls had given an advantage to the far-right - Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella's "National Rally" -. Choosing a prime minister who can ease tensions between Macron's centrist camp, the left-wing forces - the Socialist Party and "France Unrestrained", and the far-right proved difficult.
After days of negotiations for political deals that led nowhere, on July 22 Macron announced a "political truce" during the Olympics (July 26 - August 11). The head of state gave himself until the middle of this month to appoint a prime minister, after letting political parties negotiate, Reuters recalls.
Macronists from the Center Alliance were betting on continuing coalition talks during the Olympics and on a split on the left, so that the Socialist Party would distance itself from the far-left "Unruly France", noted Agence France-Presse before the Games.
The mysterious sabotage of railway and telecommunications links in France at the start of the Olympics seemed like an ominous omen, but then the biggest sporting event continued without new security concerns, the agency points out.
During the forum itself, Macron retreated to his presidential residence on the French Riviera, making several Olympic raids to the capital, including for a long hug with judo titan Teddy Riner after the fourth Olympic title in his career, won in the category over 100 kilograms (in Paris he also took a fifth gold - in the team tournament of judokas).
Riner was one of the selected athletes who symbolically extinguished the Olympic flame together with the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach. The torch was brought to the "Stade de France" for the closing ceremony of the forum by another French sports hero – swimmer Leon Marchand, who won four gold medals in Paris (in the 200 m breaststroke and 200 m butterfly, as well as in both distances in the combined swimming - 200 and 400 m).
And politicians were plotting a way out of the crisis out of public view, while millions in France cheered Marchand and watched the “adventures“ (as Reuters put it) in table tennis of the bespectacled brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun (who contributed to the country's first Olympic medal in this sport - bronze in the team event). Now Macron will have to make a decision. A day after the end of the Olympics, however, he seemed in no hurry, Reuters notes.
In an interview with the sports daily “Equipe“ the first person in the country did not give a sign, nor did he even hint who he would nominate as prime minister. “All those who did not believe in the Games were wrong,” the president said. “Often, when you turn on the TV or read a newspaper, there is talk of decline. "The French have rediscovered the fact that they can do great things together," he said, adding that he hoped to use this goodwill to overcome political divisions.
It remains to be seen whether he can reap any political benefits, but his fiercest opponents - far-right leader Marine Le Pen and left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon („France Insurrection“) at least did not raise their voices during the Olympics.
Time for a decision
So far, Macron has ignored the candidate for prime minister agreed by the left-wing alliance that won the election. After long and difficult negotiations between “France Insurrection” and the Socialist Party, the NFP proposed Lucie Castet, a high-ranking civil servant unknown to the general public, as prime minister. Macron, however, has been adamant that he will not appoint a new government before the end of the Olympics.
Despite efforts to promote her during the Games, Caste remains a political unknown to the general public, Reuters points out. “Who is she?“, asks the agency's reporters in the Fanzone, forty-one-year-old Zahira Dakar, after having just watched France's victorious final against Poland (3-0) in the men's volleyball on Saturday. “I haven't followed politics for two weeks. The Olympics were our escape”, Dakar declares.
The probability that the left will take over the Matignon Palace (the residence of the French prime minister) with Caste does not seem great. According to Macron, in a private conversation, he believes that the early vote has created a National Assembly in parliament whose "center of gravity will be either in the middle of the political space or on the right," Reuters points out.
"We need a person capable of communicating simultaneously with the center, the left and the right, to find a common language with everyone from the socially minded right to the left who insist on law and order", the head of state said, according to Reuters.
A suitable figure is Xavier Bertrand - a conservative politician, a former minister in the governments of presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, and currently the head of the Hauts-de-France region (Upper France), Reuters notes. He has been harshly critical of Macron, but at the same time has shown an ability to cooperate with the head of state.
Bernard Cazeneuve, prime minister under Socialist President Francois Hollande, who was in office during the Islamist attacks in Paris in 2015, could also do well, Reuters notes, citing information from his aides.
Budget challenge
Whoever Macron appoints, the new prime minister will face a difficult situation right from the start, as parliamentary approval of the 2025 budget is the most urgent task at a time when France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its budget deficit.
“If Macron tries to form something like a right-wing government, he will not get a budget”, said Eric Cockrell, a lawmaker from the left-wing New Popular Front coalition, who chairs the finance committee in the French parliament. Macron's entourage is keen to use the fact that the impressive Paris Olympics was organized by a centrist president, a socialist mayor and a conservative regional governor as an example of what a united France can achieve.
At the same time, the head of state's opponents are keen to make sure that he does not benefit from the sports forum, Senator Laure Darcos, a lawmaker in the upper house of parliament, told Reuters. The agency also notes that even if the domestic political atmosphere remains gloomy for Macron, the Olympics have strengthened his international position.
Michael Payne, a former head of the IOC's marketing department, said that the president is perceived abroad as a “successful leader“. However, he believes that Macron made a strategic mistake by calling early parliamentary elections in France before the Olympics, rather than after them.
Reuters again makes reference to the political timelessness amid the sporting euphoria. At the Club "France", where families lined up to take photos with the Olympic flame or to get their hands on a coveted souvenir like the Games' fluffy red mascot - Phryg (named after and resembling the ancient Phrygian hats, a symbol of French freedom), it was hard to find anyone who wanted to talk politics, the agency points out. "No, please!", Christine Fran declares firmly in the fan zone, with the French tricolor on her shoulders.