President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to make France shine during the Paris Olympics which begin Friday, at the same time striving to reverse his political fortunes after they were left battered and bruised in the recent national elections.
AP reports the Olympics are the best way to convince the world to “choose France,” Macron said this week, reheating his hopes for boosting foreign investment in the country.
“It will promote our landscapes, our facilities, our savoir-faire as well, our gastronomy,” was his confident prediction.
Macron’s judgement flies in the face of his efforts last month to call early legislative elections that plunged France into a political turmoil.
The vote left the National Assembly, the influential lower house of parliament, weakened with no dominant political bloc for the first time in modern France, as Breitbart News reported.
Macron has since said he will not name a new government until after the end of the Paris Olympics.
The AP report notes Macron plans to lunch with about 40 foreign CEOs of some of the world’s biggest companies, including Samsung, Tesla and Coca-Cola, aiming to reassure them about the political situation in France, his office said.
File/French President Emmanuel Macron scores a penalty as he participates in the Varietes Club charity football match to benefit children in the hospital, at the Bernard Giroux stadium in Plaisir, outside Paris, France, April 24, 2024. (Benoit Tessier/Pool via AP, File)
But that’s not what he wants to talk about when he welcomes over 110 heads of state and government Friday for the Olympics’ grandiose opening ceremony.
The Elysee Palace said Macron will express “the ambition of showcasing the entire France, its natural and cultural heritage, its art de vivre and its top-class athletes, to an audience of over 4 billion television viewers, including over 1 billion for the opening ceremony alone.”
Ultimately Macron hopes French people will turn their focus on the athletes’ achievements rather than political the political chaos that currently reigns.
“It’s a moment of shared fun that will be good for the country. We’re going to be enthusiastic and united again. The country needs it,” he boasted Tuesday.
One promise remains that Macron didn’t meet yet: swimming in the Seine that was cleaned up for the Olympics.
He repeated this week he’ll go, but most likely after the Games — after all, Macron has still three years until the end of his term, AP noted.