The opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics, which featured a transgender parody of the Last Supper while highlighting a controversial Muslim performer, have been branded as a national “suicide” by a former French government cabinet member.
While the Olympics were supposedly set to mark a political truce in France, which remains in limbo following President Emmanuel Macron’s snap elections that left the country without an actual government, the deeply divided country saw rage and elation — depending on political affiliation — over the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris on Saturday evening.
Dubbed the “gayest ever” games, the opening ceremony sparked condemnation for promoting paganism and openly mocking Christianity with a trans interpolation of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ.
Former French Culture Secretary Philippe de Villiers said that the opening ceremonies were a “shame,” adding: “We are committing the suicide of our country in front of the whole world.
“The Last Supper with drag queens and the beheading of Marie Antoinette add infamy to ugliness. The France of Macron and wokism is not France.”
Populist right-wing French MEP and niece of Marine Le Pen Marion Marechal similarly said: “To all the Christians of the world who are watching the Paris 2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation. Not in my name.”
The ceremonies, which have widely been described as anti-Christian, were also criticised by Christian leaders, including the Bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester, Robert Barron.
“France felt, evidently, that while trying to put its best cultural foot forward, the right thing to do is to mock this very central moment in Christianity, where Jesus at his Last Supper gave his body and blood in anticipation of the cross. Its presented as this gross, flippant mockery,” Bishop Barron said.
“This deeply secularist, post-modern society knows who its enemy is; they are naming it, and we should believe them. But furthermore, we Christians, we Catholics, should not be sheepish; we should resist; we should make our voices heard.”
The Catholic Bishop questioned: “Would they ever dared mock Islam in a similar way? Would they have ever dreamed of mocking, in this gross, public way, a scene from the Qur’an? We all know the answer.”
Indeed, the Opening Ceremonies featured a performance from a Muslim singer, 28-year-old Franco-Malian Aya Nakamura, who is often compared to singers like Cardi B or Rihanna. Nakamura sang her song “Pookie” (Snitch) with the accompaniment of the French Republican Guard. This came despite a majority (63 per cent) of French people opposing her involvement in the Opening Ceremony.
Many on the progressive left in France heaped praise on the opening ceremony, including Green lawmaker Sandrine Rousseau, who declared the “best response to the rise of fascism and the far-right is this ceremony.”
“Let the world be woke. It will be so much more beautiful,” she added.
Far-left MP Thomas Portes, who caused controversy by demanding that Jewish athletes from Israel be barred from the Olympics, said on Saturday that he was happy to see “an Olympic ceremony that goes against the racist and reactionary obsessions of the far right and its media relays… A ceremony where the Palestinian delegation was applauded.”