Le Point: "Olympic ceremony: the Duke of Anjou "weeps with shame" for France".

Haro on the Olympics! Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans, a member of the French family, has decided to take a swipe at a ceremony he considers a disgrace to our country's image. The cousin of the Count of Paris, a descendant of King Louis-Philippe I - who reigned from 1830 to 1848 - has no words strong enough to rip to shreds what he describes as an " incoherent and mediocre " show, scandalous in so many ways.

Starting with the scene depicting Marie-Antoinette being beheaded on the façade of the Conciergerie - where she was actually locked up - while the revolutionary tune of " Ça ira, les aristocrates à la lanterne..." rang out.

" One of the most shameful moments of this ceremony ", says the Duke of Anjou in a statement published on his personal website. According to him, the performance was all the more " scandalous and inappropriate " in that it took place before the eyes of many of the monarchs invited to the official tribunes, namely those of Spain, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Prince Albert II of Monaco...

The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is supposed to bring people together around the values of peace, fraternity and friendship, not to recall historic moments of division and cruelty," continued the Duc d'Anjou. This scene was incomprehensible and distressing. "

His disappointment is all the greater given that he volunteered at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was looking forward to the show Paris had concocted for 2024. " I almost cried, but with shame for our beautiful France and sadness for this missed appointment. "

The Prince of the House of France also criticized the Republican Guard's " clown-like " dance around Aya Nakamura in front of the Académie Française, which he described as "the height of ridicule ", reminding us that the Guard has an obligation of " dignity and tradition ", since it symbolizes " an important part of our national identity ". And to see the singer magnifying slang in front of the dome of the Institut de France was, in his view, " an attack on the culture " of the country. " Les Immortels se retournent dans leur tombe ", he wrote.

Finally, the Duke almost choked on a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper with drag queens on the Debilly Bridge, denouncing a provocation that was " offensive and blasphemous " for Christians the world over. " A religious insensitivity that I condemn, and once again at odds with the spirit of the Olympic Games ".

In this, Charles-Philippe d'Orléans, 51, agrees with a number of right-wing personalities who deplored certain aspects of the ceremony, such as Christine Boutin and Marion Maréchal, who denounced " crude Woke propaganda ".

The show's artistic director, Thomas Jolly, responded to the critics on BFMTV, saying that he had in no way been inspired by Vinci's Last Supper, but that he wanted to symbolize " a great pagan feast ", a sort of banquet from Olympus with Dionysus as a surprise guest.

As for the head of the Republican Guard band, he was delighted with his collaboration with Aya Nakamura: a meeting " between two seemingly unlikely worlds ", which " went very well ", he confided on RMC, " in a musical and cultural communion ".

In any case, a Harris Interactive poll shows that 85% of French people thought the opening ceremony was a " success ", compared with 5% who didn't like it at all...

Read the article on www.lepoint.fr

By Marc Fourny

Published July 29, 2024