Skeptical and even critical before the start of the Games, the left succumbs to Olympic fever

The Paris Olympics are entering their second and final week of competition. A harvest of medals for the French team, accompanied by the fervour of supporters… and MPs. Criticised in advance, many elected officials from the left end up joining in the popular jubilation.

Before the start of the Olympic Games, Green MP Sandrine Rousseau was sceptical about the consequences of these Games in terms “carbon footprint, social and gender equality”But the MP got caught up in the Games in front of her television and even in the stands of the Olympic sites: “I think we also needed this break of national unity,” she recognizes.

“Chauvinism is not quite the same as nationalism.”

Sandrine Rousseau, Green MP

to franceinfo

We have moved from nationalism, she says, the campaign theme of the extreme right during the legislative elections, to chauvinism. “Chauvinism is not quite the same thingshe explains. Behind a champion, we are not entirely rational in the support we give to this champion. It is not a narrow nationalism but a support for a national collective.“

The Green MP does not forget to mention the conditions of preparation of the French champions for the Olympic Games: “Many athletes that we admire and venerate during competitions, the rest of the year, are below the poverty line. There is still something that we will have to question after the Games, it is essential.”

It is also the aftermath, the assessment of these Olympic Games, which counts for Aurélie Trouvé. On leave, the rebellious deputy admits to being glued to the events. “Several hours a dayshe admits, I watch the games“A fervor compatible, according to her, with political awareness: “It’s not because I applaud Léon Marchand that I can’t denounce the fact that, in Seine-Saint-Denis, in my constituency, there will be no more swimming pools when we already have so much trouble taking our children to the swimming pool.”

The MP is coordinating a popular commission of inquiry for the rebels, an informal approach to the social and environmental effects. It will continue after the Paris Games.