Opening ceremony critics

Paris mayor drops f-bomb-filled rant toward opening ceremony critics

Anne Hidalgo blamed the far right for stoking divisions in French society.

By Victor Goury-Laffont

Anne Hidalgo is not holding back.

When religious and political officials voiced outrage in response to the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the International Olympic Committee chose diplomacy, apologizing to anyone who may have been offended.

Hidalgo, on the other hand, said, “Fuck the reactionaries, fuck this far right, fuck all of those who would like to lock us into a war of all against all,” in an interview with Le Monde published Tuesday, using the expletive in the original English.

Most of the anger surrounding nearly four-hour ceremony was directed at an artistic segment called “Festivity,” which featured a group of dancers and drag performers in a scene that many perceived as paralleling Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” — something organizers have denied.

Christian groups and conservative leaders worldwide — including Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and former United States President Donald Trump — criticized the opening ceremony as tasteless and blasphemous.

Much of the vitriol has been directed at the ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, and a DJ who participated in the performance. Both have received death threats and been subjected to cyberbullying online.

Hidalgo said she was proud of the way the opening ceremony presented Paris to the world.

“Paris is the city of all freedoms, the city of refuge for LGBTQI+ people, the city where people live together,” she said.

Hidalgo described the opening ceremony and the Games as an incredibly successful so far, offering hope in light of a far-right surge in France and Europe.

“The far right’s messaging has been crushed by these Games and by the opening ceremony,” the center-left Parisian said. “Something incredibly positive is happening.”

Jaded Parisians have embraced the Olympics, with a joyful atmosphere spreading across the city.

The socialist leader, who has led the French capital since 2014, also used the interview to respond to her critics and anti-Parisian sentiment on the part of French people.

“There’s both admiration for this incredible city, which not many people understand, and at the same time orchestration of a hatred of Paris,” she said.

Critics have targeted Hidalgo’s push for anti-car initiatives and greener urban policy in the French capital. Also the city’s plan to clean up the Seine in time for Olympic water sports was met with ridicule and mockery.

The Seine cleanup has seen mixed results, with heavy rains affecting water quality. It was described as “marginally acceptable” at the most recent of three Olympic triathlon events held in the famed Parisian river.

Public swimming in the Seine — banned for a century — is scheduled to begin next summer.