from Emmanuel Macron to Anne Hidalgo, these politicians who rely heavily on the Games

One hundred years after the last Summer Olympics in France and 79 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, the Olympic flame arrives on Wednesday in Marseille. Behind this symbol, the success or otherwise of the Games will decide the future of several political leaders.

Emmanuel Macron is in Marseille, Wednesday May 8, for the arrival of the Olympic flame. The Olympics are also a political issue. The Head of State is playing big with these Olympics, his entourage has been saying it for a long time. Emmanuel Macron hopes for success across the board to see his rating rise among the French. It therefore wets the shirt in every sense of the word. He even said he was ready to swim in the Seine, which was supposed to be cleaned for swimming competitions.

Conversely, if strikes or incidents, more or less serious, were to spoil the party, the president could be held responsible, commensurate with his involvement. And the podium would turn into a bonfire of vanities.

He is not the only one to bet politically, electorally on these games. It is possible to belong to a different camp and have converging interests. The president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse hopes to take advantage of this to try to forget or at least put into perspective her disqualification in the last presidential election and why not get back on track. The Olympic issue is even more crucial for the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. Anne Hidalgo has not yet said whether she is a candidate for a third term. The success or not of Paris 2024 will therefore partly decide the casting of Paris 2026, the next municipal election.

Quite critical oppositions

Not all of the left is in unison with this Olympic enthusiasm. The Greens, including Parisians, view all this with caution. Even if a vast majority of the installations were already existing, they see in these games a riot of means that are not very eco-compatible. They are therefore waiting around the corner for the promoters of these Olympics and in particular Anne Hidalgo. Bad Games and they would use them as a springboard for 2026 or even 2027. The Insoumis for their part are at least suspicious, not to say hostile. As soon as Paris’ candidacy was announced in 2015, Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized “unnecessary spending”. And his close guard does not wait until the end of the festivities to take stock. As revealed the Parisian and we have had confirmation of this, rebellious deputies led by Aurélie Trouvé of Seine-Saint-Denis have already started a sort of audit of the Olympic budget to designate the “profiteers” and the big losers.

Finally regarding the National Rally, it’s very simple: the leaders will judge on the evidence. But Marine Le Pen’s harsh criticism of Aya Nakamura’s arrival or the official poster gave the message: the future presidential candidate will not let anything pass that could help her at the polls. Behind the Games, you will have understood, a political competition is taking shape. With partisan or personal ambitions as medals.