The Paris Olympics avoided the perilous scenario of cohabitation with the RN, but political uncertainty remains after the left’s victory in the legislative elections, a vagueness that should have little impact on the event which begins in less than three weeks.
The Olympic Games (July 26-August 11) escaped a very complicated situation to understand if the RN, finally arriving in 3e position on Sunday, had obtained an absolute majority.
“Tony Estanguet must be very happy since [dimanche] evening. Clearly it would not have been the same to manage the Olympics with Jordan Bardella at his side,” says David Roizen, Olympic specialist with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.
On the other hand, the period that is opening is full of questions. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal presented his resignation on Monday morning, but Emmanuel Macron decided to keep him in his post “for the moment” to “ensure the stability of the country”, according to the Élysée. But what about the future? Will Gabriel Attal be there for the Olympics? And Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra? Because there is no guarantee that this status quo will continue until the Olympics.
“Uncertainty”
“We are still going to enter a form of fairly pronounced uncertainty in the coming days,” assures former PS MP Régis Juanico, a specialist in sports issues. “For the moment, it remains very hypothetical. But above all, when will the government take shape? Because the Olympic Games are in two weeks,” he wonders.
“There should be continuity of government until the Olympic Games,” believes David Roizen. This is also the subliminal message that the entourage of the Minister of Sports has been sending to certain executives of the Olympic movement in recent days.
“They would like to stay, that’s the main thing,” assures one of these executives.
Since the dissolution decided on June 9 by Emmanuel Macron, the official message from the organizers of the Olympic Games has not changed one iota: the Games will take place and everything is going well without the political context disrupting the progress.
“They are somewhat obliged to stay on this line, and they are not necessarily wrong. So close to the event, everything is on track,” assures a source within the French sporting authorities.
Asked by AFP about the consequences of the results of the legislative elections on Sunday, the Olympic Games organizing committee maintained this line: “we have not stopped working, day and night, in recent weeks to be there,” it replied. And to recall that the Olympic Games can count on “the continuity of the State” which rests on the police prefects (Laurent Nunez), the region (Marc Guillaume) and the interministerial delegate for the Olympic Games (Michel Cadot), a bloc allowing the Olympic Games to be waterproof.
“It could have been chaos with the RN, but now we are entering a period of stabilized uncertainty where everyone will be able to concentrate on the Olympic Games,” predicts a political source.
However, security issues surrounding the Games are multiple between the threats of attacks, the complex geopolitical context and the security of the opening ceremony, and the Olympic Games risk losing the Minister of the Interior. Gérald Darmanin had indeed warned that in the event of a defeat of the presidential majority, he would leave his post, without specifying whether his departure would be immediate.
“Not good news”
“That’s really not good news,” a senior official told AFP, “because between [lundi] and the start of the Olympic Games, there may be important decisions to be made, and we will lose a great specialist in the field.”
The fear of demonstrations and unrest if the RN came to power, leading to a massive mobilisation of law enforcement, has apparently been ruled out, which is a relief to the authorities. “Clearly, that would have been the icing on the cake. We already have New Caledonia to manage, and that’s no small feat,” explains this senior official.
The head of the organising committee, Tony Estanguet, remains firmly in line in his lane, assuring AFP that “the French will be there as they have been since 8 May on the roads of the Torch Relay”.
A relay which has attracted nearly four million French people for more than two months, “which the dissolution has totally eclipsed”, regrets Régis Juanico.