PARIS — Emmanuel Macron has pledged to make France shine during the Olympics. Weaker than ever at home after recent elections, the French president hopes the Paris Games also will help his own star glitter again, AP reported.
The Olympics are the best way to convince the world to “choose France,” Macron said this week, trotting out a motto geared towards boosting foreign investment in the country. “It will promote our landscapes, our facilities, our savoir-faire as well, our gastronomy.”
Macron’s decision last month to call early legislative elections plunged France into a political turmoil. The vote left the National Assembly, the influential lower house of parliament, with no dominant political bloc for the first time in modern France.
The French president said ministers from his centrist alliance would keep handling the government’s work in a caretaker role at least until the end of the Olympics to avoid creating “disorder” when the world has its eyes on France.
On Thursday, Macron plans to have 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.
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.”
In addition, Macron and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach have championed a summit meant to encourage world leaders and international organizations to support sports-related initiatives in areas like education, health, equality, inclusion and sustainable development.
The Sport for Sustainable Development summit was to be held Thursday near the Louvre Museum and include 50 heads of state and government.
Macron, who has highlighted the sports he has played over the years — famously boxing as well as tennis — said welcoming the Olympics “was just a dream” when he first got elected in May 2017. Just four months later, Paris nabbed the Games.
Macron’s aides said he personally was involved in preparations, spending hours in meetings and making almost 70 trips across France to encourage local sports initiatives or cities to host Olympic competitions over the past seven years.
When launching the 200-day countdown for the Games, Macron urged French nationals to work out 30 minutes a day, posting a video on his social media with him looking sweaty and in sportswear next to a punching bag.
He also got involved in setting up the opening ceremony along the River Seine — even if he refused to disclose details to keep the “surprise.” He backed the idea because he wanted France to see it was important to “dare changing the rules” of an event typically held in a stadium, one of Macron’s aides said.
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