PARIS — It’s 1 a.m., on the banks of the Canal de Saint-Denis and 2024 Paris Olympics the closing ceremony ended an hour ago.
But in the fan zone surrounding the highway overpass near the Stade de France, Parisian DJ Sara Zinger is spinning for a young crowd of hipsters, tourists and volunteers soaking up every last drop of good vibes from these Games.
They know that whatever time they go to sleep, France is about to wake up from its Olympic dream to the harsh reality.
“The Olympics helped bring people together and everyone was behind the French athletes, whether they were black or white,” said Mary Mathurin, 21, a student who was picking up waste from the sports festival. will begin.”
The Olympics were more successful than Paris could have imagined, turning this notoriously brutal city into an oasis of laughter. They gave this divided nation a real moment of national pride and unity.
But political and social turmoil France met before a ghostly metal horse galloped down the Seine didn’t go Just before these Games, the extreme right won a big victory Europe-wide elections prompted President Emmanuel Macron to call a surprise legislative vote in hopes of stemming its momentum.
The far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen fell short of expectations, but no other party polled well enough to form a government. This left French politics behind an ugly impasse.
This week, Macron must name a prime minister, who will have the herculean task of unifying a divided legislature or governing with minorities. The French president could easily have expressed his views on France’s immediate political future Discusses rainy opening ceremony with NBC News. “With courage and tenacity, nothing can stop us,” he said. “We will.”
Optimism aside, analysts see the country facing years of stalemate that could end in 2027 with a far-right president.
“Macron has bought himself some time and some popularity. But the main problem is that nobody is close to a majority in parliament,” said Queen’s Professor of French Politics Rainbow Murray. Mary’s University of London.
The wave of unity that broke in France in August “was never going to last and now they have to face reality,” Murray said.
The Games physically transformed Paris – more than a billion dollars were spent cleaning the river alone. But its population is younger, more educated and less likely to vote for Le Pen. For this demographic, the Olympics became a crucible for France’s multiculturalism – its opening ceremony drag performers and Lady Gaga – and as resistance to growing ultraconservative forces elsewhere in France.
“The inauguration was huge — for Le Pen,” said Maxime Jourdan, 35, who works in events. “The far right has been very quiet at these Games.”
Murray explains that this silence may be by design.
“National pride and gathers around the flag It normally works out well for the far-right, but not at the Olympics, where many athletes are of immigrant origin and France presents a more pluralistic image than the far-right prefers.”
He added that, both politically and culturally, staying out of power in recent weeks has benefited the far-right. “If the far right were in power right now, they would seize it, but instead they’re watching the mainstream in power create a hash of it, and they’ll celebrate it in the coming months.”
Whether the pause in hostilities was intentional or not, anyone who has visited France and spoken to members of the French public over the past two weeks can hear that Paris 2024 was a success. Beforehand, the big story was that Parisians didn’t want the event Sena was quiet very dirty and terrorist risk it seemed too big.
To be sure, it wasn’t all sporting heaven. Paris has been swarmed with police and military – some checkpoints apparently infuriating ordinary travelers – and the ubiquitous corporate sponsorship of the Games feels relentless. But even with these typical annoyances, it was hard not to be swept up in the collective goodwill.
Dressed in Dutch oranges, Nigerian greens and a rainbow of other colours, the crowd watched the world’s biggest sporting festival unfold against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful cities.
Beach volleyball players rose from under the iron bars of the Eiffel Tower and cyclists made their way through the crowds on cobbled streets as far as Montmartre. B-girls and boys breakdanced at the altar of La Place de la Concorde, and triathletes were the first of what Paris Mayor Anne-Marie Hidalgo hoped would be the first of many in a hundred years—legitimate Seine swimmers.
Sports and sightseeing aside, the city’s often bewildering infrastructure also put on a show. The mass closure of the city’s central streets to cars has temporarily widened the recent times cycle path revolution it made Paris the envy of the environmental world. French newspaper Le Figaro called the metro’s dramatic improvement in punctuality and frequency “a magical interlude”.
But like many summer romances, the nostalgia left behind by the Paris Games is not immune to the faces France is reawakening. In the coming weeks, prime minister Macron must form a government, deliver a budget statement at a financially difficult time and then either rule in a minority or keep a different coalition happy.
At La Concorde last week, Hector Gore, 34, watched the hack on the big screen and took in the optimism of his fellow viewers.
“We would like to keep this part of the Games after they are over,” said the engineer. “But in reality, we know that’s not going to be possible. Unfortunately, we know we’re going to have to go back.”