The French political world, and beyond, split after the opening ceremony of the Games, "pride" and "slap to the obscurantists" for the left which exalts the "inclusive" aspects of the show on the Seine, "shame" and "exaltation of the woke » for the right and the far right.
What caused discussion, above all, was the spectacle of the drag queens protagonists of a scene that recalled Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. «Opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians around the world was a really bad start, dear French. Squalid", writes the leader of the League Matteo Salvini on his social networks. Following closely behind is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who did not miss the opportunity to launch his new invective against "the weakness and disintegration of the West". The show on the Seine which paid homage to a multi-ethnic France and highlighted the LGBTQ+ community is the emblem of the "moral void", attacked the Hungarian prime minister. «Metaphysical ties, with God, homeland and family, are gradually lost» and this «has led to the absence of public morality, as can be seen from the opening ceremony of the Olympics», he stated, adding that «Western values , long considered universal, are increasingly considered unacceptable and rejected by many countries around the world" such as China, India, Turkey and Arab countries.
Even the French Episcopal Conference did not like the scene : «Let us think of all the Christians on all the continents who have been hurt by the excess and provocation of certain scenes. We hope they understand that the Olympic celebration goes far beyond the ideological prejudices of some artists." A "mockery of Christianity", "scenes of derision and ridicule of Christianity", they write in a press release, co-signed by the organizers of the "Holy Games", a program of the Catholic Church to reconcile sport and faith.
There was also controversy over the performance of the Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, whose choice had been contested by Marine Le Pen from the beginning as "unrepresentative" of France. Namakura, the most listened to Francophone singer in the world, not only had great success but sang accompanied by the most "French" music imaginable, that of the musicians of the Republican Guard in uniform, in front of the French Academy. A provocation, perhaps, which the left of La France Insoumise and the socialists praise for having celebrated "the values of freedom, equality and fraternity to which 'sisterhood', equality and inclusion have been added". In what is interpreted by the left as "the best response to the growth of fascism and the far right, a slap in the face to the obscurantists".
For Républicains senator Valérie Boyer it was instead "a vision of our history that seeks to ridicule Christians". The spokesman for the Rassemblement National, Julien Odoul, spoke of "shame" for the opening of the Games, calling it "a pillaging of French culture". Marion Maréchal, niece of Marine Le Pen, denounced the "J-Woke 2024" with a play on words between "games" and "woke": «Know - she added - that it is not France that speaks but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation." No comment from Marine Le Pen, who limited herself to saying "good luck" to all the French athletes.
(Unioneonline/D)