French President Emmanuel Macron is very satisfied with the way the Olympic Games have gone, thanks in his opinion to a great collective work that shows that “when France is united, it knows how to do great things”, while the losers are the doomsayers who anticipated that everything would be a failure.
“There is a loser, the spirit of defeat. All those who have been telling us for seven years that it was madness to host the Olympic Games,” Macron said in an interview published on Monday by L’Equipe, the day after the closing ceremony.
He recalls those who had predicted that the opening ceremony on the Seine River “was unconscionable in terms of security”, those who predicted that France would not have many medals, that the Olympics would be “a financial hole”, that it would not be possible to decontaminate the Seine in time to allow bathing and to organise some competitions there.
In the end,” he concludes, “we did it. It’s formidable, it’s the fruit of a collective effort (…) It shows that when France is united, it knows how to do great things”.
Mission impossible.
We the French: pic.twitter.com/oi4qsALrSs
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 11, 2024
Macron looks back on the genesis of the success of the Games
He insists that the opening ceremony “was a formidable moment full of audacity, of French spirit”. When asked about the criticism, which was centered on the parody of Jesus Christ’s last supper with the apostles, that gravely offended Christians the world over, Macron gave a typically vague response without actually addressing the issue.
“That there are disagreements and people who are not happy, that is part of the debate. But then, what I do not accept is insults, hatred and threats. Never. What I can say is that an overwhelming majority of our compatriots loved this ceremony and that we gave a formidable image of France, of audacity, of conquest, of a great story of what our country is,” he muttered.
The president welcomes the choice of Thomas Jolly, who conceived the scene and everything else, as artistic director, “because we are a living democracy” despite alienating Christians in his own country and around the world.
He congratulated those who had been involved in the organisation, such as the volunteers, and in particular the forces of law and order. He also congratulated the French athletes, who had managed to finish fifth in the medal table.
Asked about which champions or which results moved him most, Macron referred, among others, to the football team, which lost in the final to Spain, and paid tribute to the coach, Thierry Henry, whom he pointed out had to face many difficulties. Without naming names, he notes that “frankly, not everyone has helped us in this matter, let’s not kid ourselves”.
Later, when asked directly whether he regrets the non-participation of star striker Kylian Mbappe, who has just signed for Real Madrid (who refused to allow him to compete in the Olympics), his response, while assuring that he is not singling anyone out, is that “all those who did not believe in the Games were wrong, both in the organisation and in sport, because it was better to be there”.
In an analysis of domestic politics, Macron repeated the argument that the Games have worked because everyone has worked together, and alludes to the mayor of Paris, the socialist Anne Hidalgo, and the president of the Ile de France region, Valerie Pecresse.
Macron defends the dissolution of the National Assembly, which he decided in June, and which resulted in early legislative elections that have left a situation of political deadlock, which is now his greatest challenge so that a new government can be formed: “When you have common objectives, when you work together, there is nothing insurmountable,” he says.
Légendes. pic.twitter.com/28doIpzk4S
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 11, 2024
