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Organisers of the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony are facing a backlash from conservative politicians and religious figures who say that it denigrated Christians.
Friday’s celebration along the river Seine included a scene depicting a bacchanalian Last Supper that included drag queens and a man clad only in blue body paint, as well as a cheeky tribute to sexual liberation.
The three-hour outdoor ceremony on Friday night featured an armada of about 100 boats carrying more than 10,000 athletes down the river. The event also contained scantily clad dancers and portrayals of diverse sexual orientations and racial minorities.
French Catholic bishops said in a statement that the ceremony “unfortunately included scenes that mocked and derided Christianity”. The Archbishop of Malta said he had written to the French ambassador to complain.
Donald Trump Jr criticised the event in a post on social media site X, while Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders claimed that the ceremony’s bearded drag queens, a rapper and a pre-teen break dancer were “mocking Christianity”.
Speaking before the ceremony, its creative director Thomas Joly, who is know in France for genre-bending theatre and the musical Starmania, said that he wanted to symbolise French history, culture and literature while creating an inclusive performance that showcased the country’s different communities.
Joly told reporters on Saturday that his aim was “not to be subversive” but rather to represent “diversity and being together”.
The Last Supper scene was in keeping with France’s long tradition of secularism, he said.
“In France we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom . . . [and are] lucky to live in a free country,” Joly said. “We are a republic. We have the right to love who we want, we have the right not to be worshippers.”
Olympics officials have long promoted the games as a unifying force that transcends politics; the opening ceremony has traditionally touted the host nation’s values and cultural pride.
Joly’s Paris ceremony included typical French touchstones from cabaret to fashion, but also set out to challenge authority and represent Gallic values such as secularism.
At one point an actor playing the beheaded Marie-Antoinette sang a song from the French Revolution, segueing into heavy metal with flames shooting up in the background.
Franco-Malian musician Aya Nakamura sang a medley of her hip-hop tinged hits, mixed with the 1970s Charles Aznavour ballad “For Me Formidable” and backed by a military band.
Earlier this year the French far-right criticised the prospect of Nakamura performing at the ceremony. Marine Le Pen said in March that it would be “a humiliation for the French” and criticised the star for being “vulgar” and not speaking French properly.
In a social media post after the ceremony, President Emmanuel Macron celebrated Nakamura’s performance, seeking to compare it with his brand of politics that fuses policies from the left and right. “En même temps,” he said, meaning “at the same time”.
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