Emmanuel Macron call ‘extremely unsettling’ for Paris Olympics

A call by Emmanuel Macron threatens to spoil the Paris Olympics, organisers say, just weeks away from the opening ceremony.

Snap French parliamentary elections called just weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics are “extremely unsettling”, the city’s mayor said, as political turmoil emerged as an unexpected risk to the July-August Games.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was dissolving the national assembly on Sunday after results from European parliamentary polls showed major gains for the far-right.

“Like a lot of people I was stunned to hear the president decide to do a dissolution (of parliament),” Anne Hidalgo said during a visit to a school outside of Paris with the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach.

Ms Hidalgo, 64, said “a dissolution just before the Games, it’s really something that is extremely unsettling.”

Paris City Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet and Amelie Oudea-Castera, Minister of National Education Youth Sports And Olympic And Paralympic Games. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Macron announced the two-round parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7, with the Paris Olympics set to begin less than three weeks later on July 26 in the presence of more than 100 heads of state.

The vote could lead to political instability if no party wins a majority, or a seismic change if the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen emerges as the biggest party nationally and enters government.

Rumours in Paris had previously suggested Mr Macron might dissolve parliament after the Games, with the 46-year-old head of state possibly eyeing a bounce in the polls if the Games were deemed a success.

Paris City Mayor Anne Hidalgo (L) said the snap elections and dissolution of French parliament will have an “extremely unsettling” effect on the lead-up to the Games. Picture: Getty Images

The Paris Games are set to begin with an unprecedented open-air ceremony on the river Seine on July 26, the first time the opening festivities for a Summer Olympics have taken place outside the main stadium.

Organisers have consistently talked up their ambitions, promising “iconic” Games that will see the world’s biggest sports event play out against the historic backdrop of the City of Light.

Worries so far had focused on security arrangements for the opening ceremony, or whether the river Seine would be cleaned up in time to hold the open-water swimming events and triathlon as expected.

Repeated strike threats from trade unions have also cast a shadow over preparations, as did public feuding over the choice of music for the opening ceremony and the official poster – indicators of France’s starkly divided political class.

“What worries me the most is what might happen after the elections,” Paul Dietschy, a history professor and sports specialist at the Universite of Franche-Comte in France, told AFP.

In the event of a far-right government, he saw the risk of protests and even a return of clashes between the far-right and far-left, which were a feature of French political life post-war.

“You could end up with a very tense political situation, with political violence,” he added.

IOC chief Bach “is obviously not going to say that he is worried, but he almost certainly is,” Dietschy added.

France's President Emmanuel Macron during his address to the nation. Picture: AFP

Anti-immigration and far-right parties led by Le Pen’s National Rally won almost 40 per cent of the vote in the European parliament election on Sunday, inflicting heavy defeat on Mr Macron’s centrist allies.

The snap parliamentary elections raise question marks over the government that will be in place when the Games begin, with ministers such as transport and interior set to play key roles during the event.

“For the preparations, the installations are ready, accreditations have been sent, plans put in place for transport: everything is primed,” Jean-Loup Chappelet, an Olympics expert at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, told AFP.

He also played down the impact of any personnel changes in the cabinet. “Nothing will change between now and July 8 in the preparations of the Games and afterwards it will be absolutely too late to change anything,” he added.

Appearing visibly deflated after Ms Le Pen’s 10-point increase on the last EU election in 2019, Mr Macron said: “The result was not a good result for parties who defend Europe.”

France's President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron exit a polling booth during the final day of marathon EU elections. Picture: AFP

Jordan Bardella, the lead candidate for the far right National Rally (RN) that had inflicted a stinging defeat on the President, said: “The French have given their verdict and it’s final.”

“The president of the republic cannot remain deaf to the message sent this evening by the people of France,” he said addressing supporters at the Parc Floral in Paris.

Marine Le Pen embraced Emmanuel Macron’s call for new parliamentary elections on X writing: “We are ready to take over the power if the French give us their trust in the upcoming national elections.”

Mr Bardella, the 28-year-old ‘captain’ of France’s far right is hailed by supporters as a political phenomenon but seen by detractors as lacking gravitas and substance.

Mr Bardella, raised in a single-parent home, became the leader of the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party, aged just 27, two years ago.

He took control of the RN’s leadership from Marine Le Pen, who has been trying to shake the party of the racist and anti-Semitic legacy left by her father and party co-founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party president Jordan Bardella. Picture: AFP

Ms Le Pen, who was runner-up in the last two presidential elections, has remained party leader in parliament and is largely expected to run again in 2027.

But her charismatic successor, who has 1.2 million followers on TikTok, is proving to be a major success in luring a younger crowd to vote for the party.

Ms Le Pen has signalled she would be prime minister if she wins the Elysee in 2027.

Mr Bardella’s carefully curated story has added to smoothing the image of the RN, which Jean-Marie Le Pen once ran from a castle in a rich town west of the capital.

The RN leader in 2022 shared details about his childhood which centred around being raised on the eighth floor of a decrepit tower block in the high crime area of Seine-Saint-Denis in northeast of Paris.

French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party leader Marine Le Pen (L) and party President Jordan Bardella. Picture: AFP

During the campaign Mr Bardella won a televised debate against the head of Mr Macron’s party list, Valerie Hayer.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal then himself took on Mr Bardella in a debate on May 23 putting the RN chief under considerable pressure over Europe.

Mr Attal sought to paint Mr Bardella as leading a party without substance that had no serious interest in Europe and a vision “of turning in on ourselves and the end of the European Union.

Mr Bardella retorted: “I am not against Europe. I am against the way Europe works now.”

He has steered the RN away from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, saying it will no longer sit in the parliament with the faction after a succession of controversies.

Far-left European politician Manon Aubry has described him as a “ghost parliamentarian” for often failing to show up in the European chamber over the past five years.

A French television report alleged in January that he used an anonymous Twitter account to share racist messages when he was a local elected official, claims he rejects.

– with AFP

Originally published as Emmanuel Macron call ‘extremely unsettling’ for Paris Olympics