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Emmanuel Macron is a party pooper, at least according to the mayor of Paris.
Anne Hidalgo accused the French president of raining on her city’s parade by scheduling the country’s upcoming snap parliamentary election just weeks before the Olympics kick off in Paris.
Hidalgo, who unsuccessfully attempted to challenge Macron in the 2022 presidential election, said in an interview with Ouest-France that Macron “spoiled the party.”
“I had a very, very hard time with the announcement,” Hidalgo told the regional daily in an interview published on Tuesday. ” I was convinced that it [the election] would take place later.”
After the far-right National Rally crushed Macron’s centrist political movement in the European election on June 9, Macron made the controversial decision to dissolve the National Assembly and call for a new legislative election over two rounds on June 30 and July 7. The move stunned many even in his own party and unleashed deep political uncertainty in the country.
The Olympics, Hidalgo said, are “a gathering of humanity around sport, in fraternity, it is positive in the period we are going through. Why spoil this beautiful moment with this election decided at the last minute, without consulting anyone?”
Macron said earlier this month that he isn’t concerned about domestic politics affecting the Olympics, but Hidalgo has been less sanguine. She said last week that she was pushing back her plan to swim in the Seine River to the week of July 15 so that it did not coincide with the vote.
After a massive cleanup effort that cost more than €1.4 billion, the Seine will host both the opening ceremony and several swimming events. In a bid to prove to doubters that the famously dirty river is now safe enough for bathers, both Macron and Hidalgo vowed to go for a dip in France’s most famous waterway — though the president has not set a date.
Hidalgo told Ouest-France that she will ask Macron again if he wants to join her.
“We will see if he wants to come and swim,” she said.
