The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is famed for his enthusiastic hugging of sports stars – as the footballer Kylian Mbappé can attest. Macron walked on to the pitch, somewhat awkwardly pulled Mbappé to his chest and patted his head to console him after defeat to Argentina in the last World Cup.
But at the Paris Olympics, Macron’s touchy-feely approach to the nation’s athletes has exceeded anything that had gone before.
At the side of the judo ring, he squeezed France’s gold medallist, Teddy Riner – the nation’s favourite sports star – in a back-slapping embrace, then held him firmly as he stared into his eyes, expressing his congratulations. He gave the judo bronze medallist Romane Dicko a notably long hug, repeatedly patted her hair, then wiped away her post-match tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. At the Stade de France, after the men’s rugby sevens won France’s first gold, he firmly gripped the face of scrum-half Antoine Dupont as he thanked him for his Olympics success. At the poolside, he grabbed the hand of swimmer Léon Marchand after one of his gold-medal wins.
Political opponents bristled at what they called the president’s “awkward” presence at carefully selected triumphant events for the national team. But Macron knows the importance of harnessing the feelgood factor in France. He was quick to make the comparison between the success of the Paris Games and the mood in 1998 after France won the men’s football World Cup, when the then president, Jacques Chirac, experienced a jump in popularity.
So far, Macron’s popularity bounce has been modest – an Elabe poll in Les Echos on 1 August found that 27% of French people trusted him to deal efficiently with the country’s problems – a rise of two points from his ratings at the start of July.
But as the closing ceremony ends on Sunday night, Macron will be plunged back into the difficulties of domestic politics.
Weeks before the Games, Macron took the gamble of calling a snap parliamentary election, after the far right trounced his centrist grouping in European elections. In the first round of the parliamentary elections, the far right surged, sparking fears that Marine Le Pen’s party could take over government before the Olympics.
But in the second round, the centre and left parties pulled together against the far right. Large-scale tactical voting by French voters meant a leftwing alliance won most seats, but fell short of a working majority in parliament. Macron is now under pressure to appoint a new prime minister before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, on 28 August, but there is no indication from which party he or she might come.
Macron has put domestic politics on hold for the Games – an “Olympic truce”, he has called it – and is relying on a caretaker government which has already resigned.
The president did not stay in Paris throughout the event: he went to the presidential summer residence on the Mediterranean. But he flew back for one triumphant moment: Friday 2 August, now known in France as Gold Medal Friday. His plane landed outside Paris in the afternoon and he greeted France’s equestrians, then went to the beach volleyball, rushed to congratulate Riner and Dicko at the judo, headed to the pool for Marchand’s gold, then went to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines for the BMX racing, where France took gold, silver and bronze.
When Macron announced this weekend that France would hold a parade of French athletes down the Champs Élysées on 14 September, before inviting them to a reception at the Élysée Palace where he could personally thank them, it became clear he aims to keep the spotlight on sport well beyond the Paralympics.
The amount of political capital Macron may earn from the Olympics remains to be seen. Before the Games, public opinion was marked by pessimism, anxiety and confusion over national politics, with a lack of comprehension, especially on the left, about why Macron had called a sudden snap election and then ignored the result by not appointing a new government in time for the event.
Sporting euphoria does not always have a lasting impact on French politics, as Macron discovered in 2018, a year after his first election victory, when France won the men’s football World Cup. Months later, the gilets jaunes protests over fuel tax led to the biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.
Who stands to benefit the most politically from the Games also remains to be seen. The Paris bid was largely prepared by the left, and local leftwing leaders – including the Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and the Socialist mayors of surrounding towns such as Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen – have been at the forefront. But Valérie Pécresse, the rightwing leader of Île-de-France, the region in which Paris is situated, also played a major role, alongside Macron’s centrists.
Macron has tried to suggest this shows how French politicians from different parties can work together. But with the new parliament deeply divided and facing a difficult battle to pass a budget in the autumn, the Olympics boost is unlikely to be enough to smooth over political cracks in the long term.
