The security guards used all their strength to close the large iron gate in front of the hotel, but the masked activists refused to surrender. They kicked with heavy boots and hit with sticks to get in, before the guards finally blocked the entrance with an improvised strike. EXCITED ATMOSPHERE: Place de la République, 7 July this year Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news What started as a family-friendly celebration of the left’s surprising success in the second round of the French election, had suddenly turned darker. The place had become a chaos of burning e-bikes and broken windows. The police blocked off all the roads out of the Place de la République, and now we felt the tear gas. You wanted Paris We thought we were well prepared, photographer Eskil Wie Furunes and I: We expected that there could be demonstrations here, somewhat regardless of the election result, and had chosen a hotel in the middle of the square to have a quick retreat if the mood boil over. Now the hotel entrance was closed, and plan A was unavailable. We had no plan B. With the gate closed, the Finnish hoods turned towards us. “Fascist TV!” shouted one, while another demanded to know who we worked for. news’s blue microphone cap looks a lot like a French TV channel, which is not very popular among a number of activist groups in the country. STREET BATTLE: The peaceful party after the French election quickly became more aggressive. Photo: Simen Ekern I explained that we came from somewhere far, far north of the French debate. Then we stood next to a wall and discreetly packed away the blue foam rubber. After a few intense minutes, the activists ran on. It became possible to signal to the guards inside the hotel gate and sneak in. Inside the lobby, with large windows facing the chaos, the atmosphere was nervous. When we heard another bang against the iron gate, the remaining guests ran upstairs, as if the hotel was about to be invaded. An American girl nevertheless seemed calm and worldly when she summed it all up for her friend on the way up the stairs: If you’re in Paris, you get to take what the city has to offer. And it’s true – in recent years, angry demonstrations have had a permanent place on the capital’s menu. Somewhere between croque monsieur and roast calf’s liver, roughly. Mood report from Place de la République after the election At the same time, it will take more than a few street battles to put Paris out. The following morning, the place was cleaned and washed impressively early. It’s a bit like efficient snow shoveling in a Norwegian city when it’s raining at night: There’s no point in being surprised by snowfall or molotov cocktail rain. It’s just about being prepared. Only a smashed bus shelter and a large, fenced-in pile of smelly, burned-out e-bikes bore witness to the chaos of the night before. Warned against civil war President Emmanuel Macron had warned of the danger of civil war in France before the election. Both if the far left or the far right ran away with the victory, it would be dangerous, the president thought. The militant activists who had infiltrated the peaceful celebration were probably looking forward to fighting with the police for a bit regardless of the election result. And some civil wars did not constitute street fighting in any way. Moreover, it was not so easy to say who had won the election after the votes had been counted. The far right was disappointed that the high number of votes had not led to a majority in the National Assembly in the second round of the election. The left celebrated that their coalition won the most seats, but here too there was no question of a majority. OLYMPIC MESS: President Macron called for a political truce during the Olympics. Photo: Reuters So who was going to be prime minister? And when would someone be given the task of forming a government? Not before the Olympics anyway, was the message from President Macron. He called for an “Olympic truce” in a divided country until the Games were over. For the critics, it seemed less like a commendable call for unity than like a cynical prolongation of time with the Olympics as an excuse. They said they couldn’t make it to the Olympics, yes. Those days in early July had been so dominated by uncompromising election campaigning and heated debate that it seemed absurd that the world’s biggest sporting event would take place here just a few weeks later. Was it even possible? In any case, the Parisians themselves seemed lukewarm to the whole idea. It is not always so easy to excite the citizens of Paris. Excessive enthusiasm can be carried on in less central areas, where there is nothing else to do. In the capital, relaxed skepticism is best. A little over half a year before the Games were to begin, almost half of the surveyed capital residents stated that the Olympics were “a bad thing”. LONELY: With a QR code, it was possible to eat by the Seine before the Olympics in rather lonely majesty. Photo: SIMEN EKERN When I returned to Paris again a few days before the Games were to start, it also seemed that most things had gone down the drain. The Seine was still not clean enough to swim in. The restaurant owners along the river were angry at draconian security measures that kept the tourists out. Then there was a coordinated sabotage operation that paralyzed traffic on France’s high-speed train lines. And then it started to rain when the opening ceremony started. This couldn’t possibly go well. You got Paris That was probably the night it turned around. From my live position at the Alexandre III bridge, it might have been a bit long to wait for the boats with athletes to slide past, but the big screen showed the rest. It was mostly grand and entertaining, I think. Almost as fun as following the strange culture war debates afterwards. My favorite is perhaps Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “What we saw in Paris was an attempt to degrade humans, nature’s most beautiful creature, to a level below animals,” he said after the ceremony. EVENING FLAME: The balloon with the Olympic flame rose into the air every evening after sunset. The Parisians’ answer could perhaps be translated as “You got Paris”. It is this chaotic, cross-border and inclusive scheme that is Paris, was the keynote. Those who think it “degrades people” may have to find another city. At any rate, everyone I met the next day seemed upbeat and almost touchingly proud. One newspaper even thought that the rain had made the performance more artistically successful. I won’t go that far. It was very wet that night. But there was optimism in the air. Later there was even swimming in the Seine. Security was taken care of. And out in the suburbs, which had been promised that the Games would be for everyone, it actually seemed that way. PARK LIFE: The Olympic Park in the suburb of Seine Saint-Denis offered a big screen and afternoon sun. Photo: Simen Ekern One of the finest moments I was a part of was watching one of France’s great Olympic heroes win gold on a free big screen show in the country’s poorest area, Seine Saint-Denis. People with backgrounds from most corners of the world stood there in the sunset in a park and cheered together on the swimming phenomenon Léon Marchand. Earlier in the day, medal winners from previous championships had taught children in various Olympic disciplines. An angry culture warrior would be able to object that the feeling of cohesion and integration here was at best temporary, and at worst naive. But this golden afternoon in a park an hour and a half from the center of Paris was undoubtedly both true and real. – You often talk about crime and problems when you talk about us. But this is also Seine Saint-Denis, local Paralympics sprinter Bacou Dambakate explained to me there. LOCAL PATRIOTS: Yasmine and Izia (4) think the Olympics are best in the suburbs. Photo: Simen Ekern Fragile unity The week after the closing ceremony, Le Monde’s lead writer wrote about the Olympics as “two weeks of happiness and enthusiasm” that should be able to be used for something even after the Games. A feeling that France can get things done together, and a hope that the unity “can weaken the part of the social debate that is built on people’s anger and fear”. One can always hope for that. Although the debates about who will be allowed to form a government have so far not primarily been characterized by a spirit of peaceful cooperation. The far-left party La France Insoumise believed that President Macron should be impeached to avoid pointing to the left’s prime ministerial candidate immediately after the election, for example. The Olympic truce is thus obviously over. Next week, President Macron is likely to point to a prime ministerial candidate. Some people are going to be really unhappy. You don’t need to be a meteorologist to predict that it will be unsafe for storms and fires in the streets of Paris this autumn too. Published 24/08/2024, at 17.57
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