Snap French election casts dark shadow over Games

The travel and safety of Olympic athletes and spectators about to arrive in Paris has been thrown into jeopardy by a brazen Presidential decision, writes Senior Correspondent Mike Osborne.

Olympic transport and security is at risk of disruption from protests triggered by a snap French election scheduled just weeks before the Paris opening ceremony.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the election in a bid to halt the rise of far-right parties following their success in recent European Parliament polls.

The once buoyant mood in Paris ahead of the first Olympic Games to be hosted in the city for 100 years is now shadowed by uncertainty, even fear.

The biggest concern is civil unrest caused by anti-immigration far-right groups trying to ruin an Olympics that was poised to be a celebration of France’s modern multicultural society.

The International Olympic Committee and Games organisers are downplaying the impact of the election but experts say it adds a degree of difficulty for organisers, as well as athletes and spectators negotiating their way around the French capital and satellite sights.

Paul Dietschy, a history professor and sports specialist at the Universite of Franche-Comte in France, says a victory by right-wing parties in the French election raises the risk of protests and clashes between the far-right and far-left.

‘What worries me the most is what might happen after the elections,” Prof Dietschy told AFP. “You could end up with a very tense political situation, with political violence.”

Riots broke out across the country last year after a French-Algerian teenager was shot dead by police in a housing estate on the outskirts of Paris. At one stage hundreds of tactical police swarmed the popular Champs Elysées as angry mobs gathered.

France has a special unit of riot police called Brav-M who are specially-trained to prevent protests from spiralling out of control. They can be deployed quickly on motorbikes to trouble spots, carrying handguns, batons and tear gas grenades and wearing bulletproof vests, police radios and body cameras. For the Paris Olympics there’s expected to be 150 units of 18 officers each. 

David Roizen from the French think tank Jean Jaures Foundation says fresh unrest surrounding the election could detract from the positive and united spirit of the Olympics.

“It risks ending the positive dynamic, meaning that people only talk about the Olympics from a security perspective,” Mr Roizen told AFP.

The Australian Olympic team in Paris will have at least one full-time security advisor, plus a 24/7 Australian Federal Police officer and one other security support person, the Australian Olympic Committee told a briefing in early June, before the election was called.

“We have the Australian Federal Police looking after us,” AOC chief executive Matt Carroll told the briefing. “It’s not just the one police officer. The (Australian) embassy has been connected with us with all our planning as well and been very supportive.

“So we are very confident the Australian government services provided to the Australian Olympic team are there to look after not just the Australian team but also the visitors and spectators to the Games from Australia.

“(And) the IOC, who obviously monitor this very closely through their co-ordination committee, have indicated to the NOCs (national Olympic committees) that the security is top class and they are confident the French have it covered.”

 Major security concerns surround the opening ceremony which will feature athletes on open-air boats cruising down the River Seine. It will be the first time an Olympic opening ceremony has not been held inside a stadium, raising security and crowd control issues.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she had “difficulty understanding” why Macron called a snap election just weeks before the Olympics.

​​”A dissolution just before the Games, it’s really something that is extremely unsettling,” said Mayor Hidalgo, a political rival of the president. But she stressed that from an operational perspective the elections would not affect the Olympics. 

“I think that all the work of installing, of preparing the Games, the infrastructure, is behind us and what remains is to welcome the entire world,” she said.

That message was echoed by IOC president Thomas Bach who said the elections were “a democratic process which will not disturb the Olympics” because the Paris Games have always had broad support across the French political spectrum.

“France is used to doing elections and they are going to do them once again. We will have a new government and a new parliament and everyone is going to support the Olympics,” Bach said.

Analysts say Macron’s brazen decision is a bid to stymie the rise of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) which delivered a bruising result to Macron’s Renaissance Party in recent European Parliament polls.

They say the move is aimed at preventing his main opposition from getting organised and using their momentum from the Euro elections to gain more political ground in France. 

“The rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger for our nation and for Europe,” Macron said when he announced the elections, which will involve two rounds on June 30 and July 7. The Paris Games begin on July 26, less than three weeks after the final result will be known.

The election presents voters with a stark choice between Macron’s centrist party and the far-right RN. It is a gamble as the Renaissance party currently has 169 seats out of a total 577 in the French Assembly while Le Pen’s RN has 88.

Macron has three years left in his second and final term as President but may have to work with a Prime Minister and government that oppose his policies if RN wins the biggest number of seats after the election.

France has already been through these so-called times of “cohabitation” when the president is from a different party than the parliamentary majority. In such times the PM becomes the main domestic decision-maker, while the President directs defence and foreign policy.

Analysts say with the election outcome looking shaky and unlikely to result in a clear majority, it raises the risk of civil unrest when the world will be on Paris’ doorstep.

It could also lead to a series of politically-charged personnel changes on the eve of the Games, but Jean-Loup Chappelet, an Olympics expert at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, has also played this down.

“Nothing will change between now and July 8 in the preparations of the Games and afterwards it will be absolutely too late to change anything,” he told AFP. “For the preparations, the installations are ready, accreditations have been sent, plans put in place for transport: everything is primed.” 

While tickets for most events are virtually sold out, there is wider evidence that positivity for the Games is limited. Previous polls have shown majority support for the Olympics but a survey in March this year found 57 percent of Parisians have “little” or “no” enthusiasm for the event.

Parisians are upset about the numerous no-go traffic areas during the Games while assurances that the €10 billion ($A16B) event will pay for itself have been treated with scepticism. And some trade unions have threatened to strike during the Games, which has the potential to throw the city into chaos.

Paris 2024 boss Tony Estanguet says his team is “more determined than ever” to make the Games a resounding success despite the outcome of the snap poll. “There have been around 10 elections since we launched the candidacy for the Olympics and we understand how to work with the public actors,” he said.

Paris 2024 organisers told Reuters that all the major decisions were taken a long time ago and they were ready to deliver the Games after seven years of preparation.

“With just a few weeks to go before the Games, we have entered a highly operational phase. The state is obviously a key player, but we know that we can count on their full engagement and that of our public services, even in the context of these early elections,” they said.

Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who could be out of a job by the time of the opening ceremony, said that after waiting 100 years to host another Games, France shouldn’t stuff it up.

“It’s crucial that our country takes care of its image and the message it sends to the world at a time when it is welcoming athletes from all over the globe,” she said.