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President Emmanuel Macron came to the defence of Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the Paris Olympic Games’ opening ceremony, after he reported to police that he had been subject to online harassment over parts of the parade that angered conservatives and Christians.
Prosecutors said on Friday they had opened an investigation into Jolly‘s allegations that he had received death threats and hateful messages regarding his sexual orientation and his “wrongly assumed Israeli origins”.
Macron said it was unacceptable for an artist to be attacked for their work, and praised the opening ceremony as an “audacious” performance that had made France proud.
“I’m scandalised and sad about what he has been through,” Macron said. “I want to underline my total support and all the artists who accompanied him” in creating the performance.
Jolly, a 41-year-old renowned theatre director, designed the opening ceremony as a parade of boats carrying athletes down the Seine accompanied by artists, dancers, and musicians performing along the quays and on top of monuments.
Many praised its subversive depiction of French history and culture — a beheaded Marie-Antoinette sang accompanied by a heavy metal band — and for including people of diverse races and sexual orientation.
But conservative politicians in France and the US, as well as religious groups, criticised a part the show featuring a bacchanalian scene with a man clad in little but blue body paint and drag queens around a long table. They said it was an insulting representation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper mural.
French Catholic bishops said in a statement that the ceremony “unfortunately included scenes that mocked and derided Christianity”.
US presidential candidate Donald Trump called it a “disgrace” and said that, should he be elected, then Los Angeles, host of the 2028 Summer games, “won’t be having a Last Supper as portrayed as the way they portrayed it last night”.
Jolly responded by saying the sequence was not inspired by Da Vinci’s Last Supper, but by a feast featuring Dionysus, Greek god of wine and festivity, at the centre, referencing the Games’ origins in ancient Greece.
“The idea was rather to have a big pagan festival linked to the gods of Olympus,” he said. Jolly told reporters his aim was “not to be subversive” but rather to represent “diversity and being together” while keeping with France’s long tradition of secularism.
Jolly could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it was investigating charges raised by Jolly’s complaint that included “death threats because of his origin, death threats because of his sexual orientation, public insult because of his origin, public insult because of his sexual orientation, and defamation”.
Barbara Butch, a French DJ who played music during the event, also filed a police complaint for online harassment. Le Monde newspaper reported on Friday that one of the drag performers had done so, too.
The Paris organising committee said they “strongly condemned the threats and harassment” against Jolly. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said it was “an honour” and “a source of pride” for the city to benefit from “his talent to magnify our city and show the world who we are”.
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