“The biggest event of the last hundred years.” Nothing less. Just that. Some readers may have had to think twice to make sure they had read and understood this sentence correctly in La Tribune Sunday of November 26: “4 billion viewers should follow the opening ceremony [des JO 2024], along the Seine, which will highlight the entire culture of the country – ‘The biggest event of the last hundred years’, people rave at the Elysée.” A little further on in the article, we can read this other analysis – sober, in comparison – from someone “close to the president”: “If the Olympics go well, there will be a sort of pride associated with power. The goal is to succeed at that moment. If so, we will have the wind at our backs. And Emmanuel Macron […] will no longer be a subject of political life. It will be overhanging.” Diantre.
5,000 soldiers, housed in tents on the Reuilly lawn
So what is this “Olympics obsession” that seems to have gripped part of our country’s elite? France is torn apart by the greatest tensions, signs of downgrading are accumulating in education, industry, health… but some remain focused on the “Paris 2024” objective, as if nothing else. did not count and that everything had to comply with the priority imperative of the Olympic Games. In Paris, for compensation of 100 euros and two places to attend the tests, students housed in the Crous will have to leave their accommodation to accommodate health personnel, firefighters and police officers called in for reinforcement. 5,000 soldiers mobilized for the event will be housed in tents set up on the Reuilly lawn – the fact that this profession is not unionized probably has nothing to do with this rather summary treatment. In the same way, users of line R, which serves Fontainebleau, have learned that the works which prohibit the circulation of trains in the evening on the line will be extended for many months, but that they will be suspended during the Olympics period. . The Ile de France region recently had to recognize “a worrying deterioration in punctuality on certain lines” of the RATP, which undermines the daily lives of tens of thousands of users, but the central question seems to remain: “will we be ready for the Olympics? (period during which ticket and weekly subscription prices will be doubled). Finally, Ile-de-France motorists and road professionals will have to integrate into their travels the establishment of an “Olympic lane”, dedicated to officials and emergency services, on part of the ring road, which is already usually saturated.
The provincials note for their part, once again, that the great mass of events and the attention of the public authorities are focused on the capital region, leaving “the territories”, a new term used by the technocratic and media to designate the province. Illustration among others, in our tourist-recreational economy, a large part of the security agents will be mobilized for the Olympics, and the provincial festivals, which constitute a precious resource, will face a shortage of manpower. artwork.
From the transport crisis to the riots – “If they continue, it will not be good for the image of France one year before the Olympic Games,” warned Jean-François Rial, then head of the Paris tourist office – , even bedbugs: nothing should spoil the party. Nothing should tarnish the image. Even recently, when a terrorist killed a tourist and injured several others not far from the Eiffel Tower, certain reactions focused immediately and exclusively on the questions that this attack raised regarding the opening ceremony. An obsession that was mocked not long ago Charlie Hebdo : On the front page, distraught characters walk in a street sprayed with swastikas and “death to Jews”. And the title proclaims: “Anti-Semitism: the French worried. Will the walls of Paris be cleaned in time for the Olympics?”
It’s the Potemkin policy: as long as the window holds, everything goes!
That some can await this event with joy, impatience, and pride is one thing. May the success of this meeting also have positive repercussions. But it is completely illusory to think that the Olympics will be an opportunity to repair France through celebration and events. It’s the Potemkin policy: as long as the window holds, everything goes! Here we touch on one of the most problematic flaws in the way our elites operate: the extreme importance given to communication. France has gradually lost its know-how, but we are investing considerably in “making people aware”. Ministerial cabinets, fueled by advisors from all sides, are obsessed with “image”. And businesses are not left out. Changing their logo, writing their “raison d’être”, large groups spend significant budgets on their communication, when investment in R&D by French companies has declined for years compared to other Western countries. . And of course, we find the main members of French capitalism in the list of “premium partners” of the French Olympic team.
In one of his prophetic essays, Philippe Muray announced that after the era of Sapiens sapiens we entered that of “Festivus festivus”: “The latter has this particularity,” he wrote, “that he no longer makes any, but really no, compromise with reality. His feeling of infantile omnipotence exempts him from this. ” But everything happens as if the country’s governing bodies were also immersed in this state of mind. After organizing the Rugby World Cup in 2023, France will host the Olympics in 2024. It was also in the running to host the 2025 Rugby League World Cup. After reflection, the project was abandoned, because the government judged “that the risk of deficit [n’était] not totally covered,” reported The Team. The slate left by the World Ski Championships in Courchevel last February would have dampened – for a time – enthusiasm. Indeed – the show must go on! –, France has just been selected to organize the 2030 Winter Olympics in its Alpine massif. In one of his great books, the historian Paul Veyne wondered if the Greeks had believed their myths. We can wonder today whether our elites and opinion leaders really believe in this festive narrative and the primacy of events or if, more or less unconsciously, they cling to it to mask the country’s decline and give themselves the feeling of still playing in the first division.
Because reality always takes revenge and ends up destroying the beautiful window or the trompe-l’oeil decor. During the riots last July, AFP questioned Jeremy Hunt, British Secretary of State for Sports from 2010 to 2012, because he too had had to deal with the “bad publicity” of urban violence a year before the Olympic Games in London. He urged: “The organizers of the 2024 Games must remain calm and focused. There is always a moment when people realize what a wonderful showcase for a country they are and they all come together behind the Olympics.” Certainly. The 2012 edition was a success. But David Cameron did not take any “overlooking position” from it. Four years later, he left 10 Downing Street after a referendum repeal of Brexit. No, the Olympics can’t do everything.
* Political scientist Jérôme Fourquet, director of the opinion and business strategies department of Ifop, has just published France after (Threshold).
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