Macron has two months to save Olympics - ANALYSIS

By Leyla Tarverdiyeva, Day.az

"Oh, sport! You are the world!" - Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, once said. French President Emmanuel Macron also wants to follow this principle, proclaimed by his great compatriot. In April, in an interview with French media, he said that he would work on the Olympic truce, and hoped that “during the Olympic Games in Paris, hostilities in the Russian war against Ukraine, as well as in other military conflicts, in particular in the Middle East, will cease and in Sudan." Macron promised to “do everything possible to get an Olympic truce” during the Paris Games.

Macron has no authority or influence on the world stage. All he succeeds in doing is to fish in troubled waters in other states and making life difficult for those he doesn’t like. Realizing that the “Olympic truce” was beyond his means, he turned for help to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Paris in early May. Macron, who does not enjoy authority among other countries, hoped to achieve what he wanted through the hands of Beijing or, if all else fails, to at least show off as a peacemaker. But nothing worked out either there or here. A couple of days ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Macron’s initiative “dead history.” Russia also shrugged their shoulders and stated that they had not received any official proposals from France for a truce during the Olympic Games. There is no need to talk about Macron’s ability to somehow influence what is happening in the Middle East.