‘Picture postcard of Paris’: France ramps up global image ahead of Olympics

Arms outstretched, Emmanuel Macron looked out over the white sand of the Olympic beach volleyball arena under the Eiffel tower, marvelling at what promised to be the most Parisian backdrop of the games.

“This is magnificent,” he said as volunteers prepared for the hundreds of thousands of spectators who will watch events at the venue after it opens this weekend. “This is the picture postcard of Paris 2024,” said, Tony Estanguet, the Paris Olympics organiser, looking up at the Eiffel tower. “It’s magic.”

Macron, who is preparing to welcome world leaders to the Olympic games opening ceremony on Friday night, has been visiting key venues before they open, in order to both ramp up France’s global image and appeal to French people who are sceptical about the cost and impact of the games. At the volleyball arena, he recorded a video of himself wishing the world a “great games”, then posted a photo of the picturesque backdrop saying soon France would understand that these games were “worth it”.

He then walked out onto the sand to chat to Olympic volunteers, some of whom had come from countries including Spain and Canada.

But the French president stayed pointedly silent on the difficult issue of turbulent domestic politics that is hanging over France as it hosts the Games following a snap parliamentary election where voters for left and centrist parties pushed the far-right into third place, but without either having enough seats on their own to form a government.

Macron, a centrist, declined to comment on Lucie Castets, a senior civil servant, who had been suggested by the leftwing alliance which took the greatest number of seats in the vote this month as the new French prime minister.

The New Popular Front alliance of four leftwing parties, said they could unite around Castets, 37, an economist who has worked at Paris city hall, the French treasury and in the anti-money laundering unit of the finance ministry as an expert in combating tax fraud and financial crime. She is a leading campaigner for improved and well-financed public services.

In her first media interview on Wednesday morning, Castets told France Inter radio that one of her priorities would be to “repeal the pension reform” that Macron pushed through last year to raise the pension age to 64, and which triggered widespread protests .

She said a coalition with Macron’s centrist grouping was “impossible due to the fact of our deep disagreements”, adding that no coalition was possible between those who wanted more money invested in public services – the left – and those who thought it “urgent” to make cuts – Macron’s centrists, and their potential cooperation with the right.

France’s political deadlock is likely to continue throughout the Olympics.

Macron said on Wednesday that he stood by his comments in a TV interview on Tuesday, that a new government would not yet be appointed because the country must be “concentrated on the Games”. He said: “Until mid-August, we’re in no position to change things, because it would create disorder.” Asked about Castets, on Tuesday, he had said: “The name is not the issue. The issue is: Which majority can emerge in the national assembly?”

The French president last month shocked France when he called a snap parliament with only weeks to go until the Olympics.

The far-right surged in the first-round of the vote , but was held back in the final round after the French public engaged in massive tactical voting. The leftwing alliance emerged as the largest grouping in parliament with 193 seats, but came far off an absolute majority of 289. Macron’s centrists held onto 164 seats but suffered significant losses. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its allies took 143 seats, a historic high but far below what they had been aiming for. No party reached an absolute majority, leaving questions over what kind of deals can be struck to establish a stable government which would not be brought down by the opposition in a no-confidence vote.

The previous government, led by prime minister Gabriel Attal, has resigned, but is staying on in a caretaker role during the games, although it cannot pass legislation.

Olivier Faure, head of the Socialist party, which is part of the left alliance, said on Wednesday that Macron “is attempting a shameful misappropriation” of the election result.” He said: “When you call elections at the risk of causing chaos, you respect the result. Denial is the worst policy that leads to the worst kind of politics.”