Paris: The success of the Olympic Games has surpassed the wildest dreams of many in France but in the next weeks President Emmanuel Macron still will have to face the reality of the deadlocked politics created by his calling of snap legislative elections. With the Games just around the corner, the polls left France with three major blocs in parliament -- the left as the largest followed by Macron's centrist forces and the far right -- with none of them close to mustering the numbers for an overall majority. The former government of Macron allies, under Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, has carried on in a caretaker capacity throughout the Games, but five weeks after the elections, the country still does not have a new prime minister.
Macron may be hoping that the Games boost his embattled fortunes in the same way that France's winning and hosting of the 1998 football World Cup dragged up former president Jacques Chirac's popularity ratings. But even with Paris set to continue basking in the limelight while hosting the Paralympics from August 28 to September 8, Macron faces a potentially fraught return to reality. While the Games have lifted what was a morose mood in France, it is far from certain this will give a new impulse to the remaining three years of the unpopular president's mandate.
"The fact that things are going well, that we are seen as beautiful and successful abroad, has struck a chord in a country that was experiencing decline and was no longer capable of doing grea.