Liberté, égalité, fraternité – Liberty, equality, fraternity.
This was the rallying cry which laid the foundation for the seminal French Revolution against the authoritarian, and to an extent, inhuman reign of Louis XVI at the end of the eighteenth century in France.
The revolution started with a fervour for republican and democratic ideals at the heart of all events that unfolded beginning in July 1789.
But as it drew towards its end, power was amassed by a Consulate headed by one Napoleon Bonaparte following a military coup – entrenching the far-right character of France’s governance and administration even further.
The storming of the Bastille, a landmark moment in the French Revolution (Image source: Getty Images)
It is often said that history tends to repeat itself when a people fails to learn lessons from potent historical events, and earlier this month something along these lines nearly happened in France.
French politician Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) and its allies were on the brink of coming to power, their challenge only staved off by a late unification push from the French Left.
Had Le Pen’s political bloc been successful, they would have formed the first-ever radical, far-right French government since the 1945 withdrawal of Nazi troops from France.
Marine Le Pen votes in the first round of the snap legislative election in France (Image source: Getty Images)
The ramifications of the French snap legislative election become even more significant with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on the horizon.
Therefore, as we inch towards the sporting extravaganza this summer in Paris, let us understand what France’s political backdrop means for the Olympics.
What France’s snap legislative election means for Paris 2024
The snap legislative election in France was called at a time when the far-right political bloc was going from strength to strength in the European parliamentary election held in June.
Le Pen’s political alliance emphatically trounced French president Emmanuel Macron’s camp in the EU polls – receiving more than double the vote share of Macron’s centrist alliance.
Emmanuel Macron called the snap election after a disastrous showing in the EU polls (Image source: Getty Images)
Even in the first round of the French election, the far-right was seemingly poised for a historic victory, only for France’s left to spoil Le Pen’s party. The leftist Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) emerged as the single-largest political bloc after the second round, though no one had an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
French prime minister Gabriel Attal resigned after the result, only for Macron to ask him to stay on as head of a caretaker government that is expected to be in place at least until the Olympics are in town.
From the vantage point of the Olympics, there isn’t going to be a substantial change as every faction – be it the left or right – uses the Olympic platform for projecting subtle political messaging favouring their end of the spectrum.
Emmanuel Macron during a visit to the Olympic Village (Image source: Getty Images)
Olympic scholar and political scientist Dr. Jules Boykoff, who heads the Politics and Government department at Pacific University in Oregon, United States confirms as much.
“There tends to be a lot of support inside the halls of power, regardless of the political party, for the Olympic Games.
“All of them try to capitalise on the shine of the Olympics to advance their own political careers and objectives, and to look important when the global media arrives,” he says.
The difference lies in the shape and form that the political messaging takes behind the veil when a far-right administration is in charge of affairs.
Past precedents: Olympics under the far-right shadow
The most notorious example of an Olympic Games staged under the auspices of a hardcore radical and far-right government is none other than the Berlin 1936 Olympics, held to drum up support for the Nazi Party’s propaganda.
The Olympic torch relay was devised to apparently highlight the grandeur and heritage of the event, and by subtle extension Nazi Germany’s Aryan supremacy agenda. Adolf Hitler even commissioned a sports film to commemorate the grand spectacle.
Leni Riefenstahl (centre) filming ‘Olympia’, the documentary celebrating Nazism through the Berlin Olympics (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
But worth noting is that these Games were held at a time when Jews were being widely persecuted inside concentration camps across Germany in what was seen as the ‘final solution’.
And only a few years later, Hitler retraced the route of the Olympic torch relay in reverse – from Germany to Greece – as Nazi forces occupied every country on the way.
Another example of a far-right establishment organising the Olympics to effectively launder their political image is Seoul 1988.
A dove during the opening ceremony of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea (Image source: Getty Images)
Back then, South Korea’s military dictatorship wiped off homeless residents, mostly children and the disabled, from the capital city’s streets and put them into prison camps.
The overarching lesson one can draw from these examples is that it is never a good idea for a radical, fascist political group to be in power when the five-ringed sporting extravaganza rolls around.
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The far-right juggernaut was halted in its tracks in France this time, but only just. And it does not necessarily mean that it won’t rear its ugly head at a future Olympic Games.
What lies in store for the Olympic Games in the future?
At the time of writing, Joe Biden has withdrawn from the US presidential race, instead endorsing current US vice-president Kamala Harris for the post of POTUS.
This might turn the tide in favour of Donald Trump, as American voters have never voted for a female presidential candidate in the nation’s nearly 250-year history since gaining independence.
Donald Trump might make a return to the Oval Office this November (Image source: Getty Images)
This, in turn, will potentially have an impact on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games – as it’s possible that Donald Trump’s Republican party may make a return to the White House this November.
And if this indeed happens, then Trump will be around when the world’s largest sporting spectacle comes for the third time to La La Land in summer 2028.
“The Los Angeles Games very much could provide an opportunity for right wingers to normalise themselves and their ideas while the whole world is watching.
“Thankfully, that was averted in France. But it doesn’t mean it is necessarily going to be averted in the United States,” Boykoff remarks.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) headquarters in Switzerland (Image source: Getty Images)
To combat this, it is of vital importance that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) learns the lessons that the past Olympic Games have to offer, and puts its best step forward in awarding future Games to host cities.
Otherwise, the aphorism – attributed to Madrid-born philosopher George Santayana – which appears outside the Auschwitz extermination camp may well turn out to be true: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
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