France’s ‘Beautiful Dream’ Fades as Games Give Way to Political Crisis 

French President Emmanuel Macron gives thumbs up next to IOC president Thomas Bach (L) during the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France Stadium in Paris, France, 11 August 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron gives thumbs up next to IOC president Thomas Bach (L) during the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France Stadium in Paris, France, 11 August 2024. (EPA)
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France’s ‘Beautiful Dream’ Fades as Games Give Way to Political Crisis 

French President Emmanuel Macron gives thumbs up next to IOC president Thomas Bach (L) during the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France Stadium in Paris, France, 11 August 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron gives thumbs up next to IOC president Thomas Bach (L) during the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France Stadium in Paris, France, 11 August 2024. (EPA)

The Paris Olympics delivered a dazzling summertime success that charmed the world and reaffirmed French national pride. The hangover will be tough.

With Sunday's closing ceremony drawing a line under the sporting spectacle, President Emmanuel Macron must now deal with a self-created political crisis that he swept under the carpet until the Games were over.

Talks over government jobs and budget cuts loom - with voter anger sure to follow.

"Now we have to wake up from this beautiful dream," said Christine Frant, 64, at the Club France fan zone last weekend. "Such a shame we're going to return to our day-to-day routine, with no government, squabbles in parliament, while here it was all about joy, sharing."

Macron seemed to cast the entire fate of the Olympics into doubt when he called a snap legislative election just weeks before the Games were due to begin. Voters delivered a hung parliament.

Choosing a prime minister who can appease Macron's centrist camp, a leftist alliance and the far-right National Rally has proven tricky.

After days of political dealmaking that went nowhere after the July 7 vote, Macron declared a political truce for the duration of the Games, giving himself until around mid-August to name a prime minister and let political parties negotiate.

The mysterious sabotage on railway and telecoms targets at the start of the Games seemed like an ominous portent, but after that, the event carried on with no further security scares.

Macron decamped to his presidential retreat on the French Riviera, with a few incursions into Paris, including for a long hug with French judo titan Teddy Riner after he clinched his fourth career gold.

While many in France followed the tribulations of the Lebruns, two ping-pong-playing brothers, or cheered on star swimmer Leon Marchand, French politicians have been plotting a way out of the crisis.

Now, Macron will need to make a decision.

DECISION TIME

He has ignored the candidate painstakingly agreed on by the left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, which came on top in the elections but has so far made no overtures to other parties to garner a majority.

Despite efforts to bolster her profile with media interviews, the chosen candidate Lucie Castets remains a political unknown.

"Who is she?" said Zahera Dakkar, 40, after watching the volleyball final at Club France. "I haven't followed politics for two weeks. The Games were an escape from all that."

Castets' hopes of the left taking Matignon, the prime minister's official residence, appear slim. Macron believes the vote delivered a National Assembly whose "center of gravity is in the center or the center-right," a source close to him said.

"We need a personality capable of talking to the center, the right and the left. From the socially-minded right to the left that care about law-and-order," said the source, who declined to be named to discuss the president's thinking.

Macron's eventual pick cannot appear to be a flunky, the source added, with an oppositional figure needed to give the government a "flavor of cohabitation".

Xavier Bertrand, a former conservative minister under ex-President Jacques Chirac who has had tough words against Macron but has collaborated constructively with his government in his northern region fiefdom, could be compatible, the source said.

Bernard Cazeneuve, a former prime minister under Socialist President Francois Hollande, who was in office at the time of the 2015 extremist attacks in Paris, could also work, the source said. Both men's offices did not return a Reuters request for comment.

BUDGET CHALLENGE

Whoever Macron names will face a tough job, with the parliamentary approval of the 2025 budget top of the in-tray at a time when France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit.

"If Macron tries to name a sort of rightist government, he will get no budget," said Eric Coquerel, the leftist head of the finance committee in parliament.

Macron's entourage is keen to use the Games, organized by a centrist president, a Socialist mayor and a conservative regional leader, as an example of what France can do when different sides come together.

His rivals want to make sure the president gets no credit, Senator Laure Darcos told Reuters.

Even if Macron's domestic fortunes remain bleak, the Games have bolstered his international standing.

Michael Payne, a former IOC marketing chief, said the president is seen from abroad as "the leader who delivered," but he believed Macron had made a major strategic mistake by calling the snap election before the Olympics rather than after.

At Club France, where families stood in line to take selfies with the Olympic torch or snapped up fluffy red mascots, it was hard to find anyone who wanted to talk politics.

"Please, no!" said Frant, a French flag around her neck.



Israel Says Campaign on Iran to Intensify as Tehran Pledges 'Destructive' Attacks

A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Israel Says Campaign on Iran to Intensify as Tehran Pledges 'Destructive' Attacks

A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Israel pounded Iran for a second day on Saturday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its campaign would intensify, while Tehran stated that "heavy and destructive" attacks by Iran against Israel were expected within the coming hours.

Netanyahu said Israel's strikes had set back Iran's nuclear program possibly by years and rejected international calls for restraint.

"We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs' regime, and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days," he said in a video message.

In Tehran, Iranian authorities said around 60 people, including 29 children, were killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country. Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets.

Iran had launched its own retaliatory missile volley on Friday night, killing at least three people in Israel. Air raid sirens sent Israelis into shelters as waves of missiles streaked across the sky and interceptors rose to meet them.

In the first apparent attack to hit Iran's energy infrastructure, Iranian media reported a fire on Saturday after Israel bombed the South Pars gas field in southern Bushehr province. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said some gas production there was suspended following the attack.

"If (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

Iran said 78 people were killed on the first day and scores more on the second.

A military official on Saturday said Israel had caused significant damage to Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, but had not so far taken on another uranium enrichment site, Fordow, dug into a mountain.

The official said Israel had "eliminated the highest commanders of their military leadership" and had killed nine nuclear scientists who were "main sources of knowledge, main forces driving forward the (nuclear) program.”

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press revealed some of the damage sustained by Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal in an Israeli attack on the country.

Images from Planet Labs PBC taken Friday showed damage at two missile bases, one in Kermanshah and one in Tabriz, both in western Iran.