France plunged into political turmoil on Monday, three weeks before it hosts the Olympics, while a call for a strike at Paris airports injected fresh uncertainty into an already tense atmosphere.
Preparing for the world’s biggest sporting event is usually challenging for host countries, but French President Emmanuel Macron created an unexpected complication by announcing parliamentary elections last month.
Uncertainty remains in parliament after a second round of voting for the National Assembly on Sunday, making it difficult to know who will hold key positions in the government when the Games begin on July 26.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal offered his resignation on Sunday evening, saying: “Our country is facing an unprecedented political situation and is getting ready to host the world in just a few weeks.”
A statement from the presidency said Macron had asked the ambitious 35-year-old to “remain in his position for the time being to ensure the stability of the country.”
It is unclear whether the head of state will want to keep a caretaker government in place until the Paris Games end on Aug. 11, but the left-wing coalition that topped Sunday’s vote is already pushing to name a candidate to replace Attal.
The fate of Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who oversaw security preparations for the Games, also hangs in the balance.
“The biggest concerns for organisers are crime and delinquency, terrorism and the traffic situation,” Paul Dietzky, a professor of history and sport at France’s Franche-Comté University, told AFP.
“The post of interior minister is the most important.”
Darmanin said last week that if the far-right National Rally or the hard-left France Unbowed party formed a government, he would resign immediately.
“The Olympic Games have been very well planned. Everyone knows it and everyone welcomes it,” he told AFP.
Risk of disruption
Also on Monday, unions representing workers at ADP, which operates the capital’s two main airports, said they had called for a strike next week to demand an Olympic bonus for all staff and a “massive” recruitment plan.
Paris’ airports will be the main gateway to France for foreign visitors coming to watch the Olympics, with up to 350,000 expected each day, as well as most of the athletes and their equipment.
The strike, scheduled for July 17, will take place just before athletes arrive at the newly built Olympic Village in northern Paris.
ADP has built a new temporary oversized baggage terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport to handle special sports equipment such as kayaks and bikes.
Before the 1998 Football World Cup in France, when the country last hosted such a major sporting event, pilots of the national airline Air France went on strike on the eve of the start, along with taxi drivers and other transport workers.
Police, air traffic controllers, garbage collectors, central government employees, metro and train drivers and firefighters have all demanded salaries before the Olympics so they can take advantage.
Chief Olympic organiser Tony Estanguet has called for a “ceasefire” between unions and employers during the competition.
“I want us to welcome the world in the best possible conditions, and we don’t want to spoil the party,” he told French television in February.
Excitement?
Both Estanguet and the International Olympic Committee were taken aback by Macron’s electoral gambit so close to the start of the Paris Games — and so were most government ministers and voters.
Many observers saw the possibility of the far-right coming to power as a risk that would undermine France’s image – and Paris 2024 emphasised themes of diversity and openness.
“Estanguet must be feeling very happy about last night,” said David Roizen, an Olympics expert at the left-leaning Jean-Jaurès Foundation think tank in Paris.
Paris 2024 figures also stressed that senior civil servants responsible for Games-related issues such as security and transport would remain in their posts even if there were changes in the Cabinet.
The Paris organising committee told AFP the Games could rely on “continuity of state”, saying they had “worked night and day over the past weeks to be ready.”
Elections in France have overshadowed preparations for the sporting extravaganza, with local media focusing more on political manoeuvring than on the new sports facilities being built around the capital.
“If Macron hadn’t dissolved parliament, there would have been a little more enthusiasm for the Games,” Dietzky said. “You don’t really feel the enthusiasm growing. Most French people are focused on the election.”
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