For the French presidential election, there is no shortage of sporting metaphors: a "marathon at the speed of a sprint", a "horse race", a "fight" or a "match" between the candidates... However, the theme of sport and sports policies has remained absent from public debate.
While most of the twelve candidates – Nathalie Arthaud, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Anne Hidalgo, Yannick Jadot, Jean Lassalle, Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Valérie Pécresse, Philippe Poutou, Fabien Roussel and Éric Zemmour – have formulated at least some proposals, these have never come to light in public debate.
If the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) did try to remedy this by organizing a great oral on March 17, only three candidates out of the eight invited responded to the invitation.
Proof of a lack of interest in the subject less than two and a half years from the Paris Olympics?
However, politicians do not hesitate to exploit sporting events when they can boost their popularity...
France 24 offers you an overview of the sports programs and passions of the twelve candidates (in alphabetical order).
Nathalie Arthaud
Sport and Marxism rarely go hand in hand.
However, Nathalie Arthaud is far from being anti-sport.
She even took a sports-studies volleyball course in high school, where she says she discovered activism.
On the football side, this Drômoise showed her attachment to the Greens and Saint-Etienne, in an interview with SoFoot in 2017.
A convinced internationalist, she does not particularly admire the French team, even if she recognizes a virtue in it: being the reflection of French integration.
Death of raymond Kopaszewski known as kopa, son of Polish immigrants and legend of French football.
The coach was not called #Le Pen.
— Nathalie Arthaud (@n_arthaud) March 3, 2017
On its website, however, sport is completely absent from Lutte Ouvrière programs.
In the past, the candidate had expressed herself on the excesses of current football: "Political and economic life is really reflected in football, with these capitals which make their market on that of football. […] In football as in society: who has the money has the victory”, she declared in particular.
She also spoke out against the organization of the 2024 Olympics in Paris and also for access for all to sport and sports infrastructure.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
When politics annoys him, the deputy of Essonne has a very simple solution: he goes swimming a kilometer.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan indeed discovered a passion for swimming during his first presidential campaign in 2012. "It's a school of endurance. Regularity, constant effort, always bears fruit. As in politics , what counts in swimming is perseverance and straightness", he assured Le Figaro in 2018.
For its third campaign, sport is not forgotten.
The candidate of "Debout la France" has devoted an entire section to him in his program.
He places clubs and the social and solidarity economy at the heart of his project in this area.
It proposes 14 concrete measures on 3 axes: encouraging the practice of sport for all French people and reducing inequalities of access to sports practice, strengthening the competitiveness of high-level sport in France and modernizing the operation of our sports federations and our clubs.
Among these, the swimming pool is obviously not neglected, since the candidate wants to deploy a "pool plan at 1 euro" to facilitate access to these public infrastructures and develop learning to swim.
Anne Hidalgo
Mayor of Paris since 2014, Anne Hidalgo is fully committed to her city's candidacy for the organization of the 2024 Olympics.
The representative of the Socialist Party, endorsed in this campaign the slogan of Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, declaring herself "candidate who knows that sport changes lives".
Anne Hidalgo promises, if elected, "sport for all" by imposing more sport at school, in particular by developing classes with flexible hours and by carrying out a major plan for the renovation and construction of local equipment for 3 billion euros.
It also promises a full-fledged ministry devoted to Sport which will have a budget of at least 1.5 billion euros and which will win its budgetary arbitrations.
In Lyon, the city where she lived as a teenager, the mayor of Paris had created, with her sister Mary, a women's football section in the Duchère district.
She also practiced handball and then volleyball.
From now on, she is content to maintain herself with bodybuilding, the exercise bike and a little swimming, according to an interview with Gala.
Yannick Jadot
Yannick Jadot is not afraid of clichés, even if it means arriving at his meeting at the Zénith de Paris on March 27 by bike for the photo.
Or even to call himself a fan of Saint-Etienne, a shame for the candidate of the Greens who often repeats that he had a poster of Dominique Rocheteau, "the green angel", in his room, as a child.
Arrived by bike at the Zenith #ZenithJadot pic.twitter.com/feIcam5C0M
— Yannick Jadot (@yjadot) March 27, 2022
At the sports political level, Yannick Jadot admits with disarming honesty to having left more competent than him to write the program: Régis Juanico, deputy of the Loire, vice-president of the commission of Cultural Affairs and Education, but also captain of the eleven parliamentary.
On the other hand, the candidate knows the proposals inside out.
It makes sport a tool in the service of health.
"Every adult should have access to half an hour of sport a day," he promised.
The Ecologists want the creation of a Sports Festival in September.
They also want each young person to be loaned a bike, a "Made in France" bike, to participate in the reindustrialisation of the sector.
Yannick Jadot is also concerned about sexist and sexual harassment in the sports world and wants to strengthen the resources allocated to the listening units in these areas.
He also wants to ensure that all sports competitions comply with an eco-responsibility charter, in terms of respect for social and human rights, and says he is opposed to the privatization of international competitions, in order to prevent dictatorships from taking over competitions to convey political messages against the values of sport.
He hopes the 2024 Olympics will be a model event,
John Lassalle
Jean Lassalle is a big sports fan.
Elected from the south-west, there is above all rugby.
His son Thibault is also a professional in Oyonnax and thus realized an old dream of dad before a ligament injury.
However, the "shepherd candidate" does not deny the round ball.
He is a fan of the Girondins de Bordeaux, as he told SoFoot in 2017, and had also invited former star Marouane Chamakh to be on his list for the regionals in 2010.
However, in its 2022 program, sport appears very little.
He only indicates that he wants to create a big Sports Festival on September 21 on the model of the Music Festival and "encourage extracurricular activity times" at school to free up time in particular for sport and culture.
He would also like to promote the learning of martial arts, a real school of life according to the candidate.
In the home stretch of the campaign, he also said that as president, he would withdraw the organization of the next World Cup in Qatar.
A prerogative which does not however depend on the French president.
Marine Le Pen
At the National Rally, sport does not seem to be the priority of the campaign: none of the thematic booklets, nor of the 22 starting measures of Marine Le Pen are turned towards the subject.
Nevertheless, the candidate and her entourage leaked some ideas on the subject in the campaign, in particular to franceinfo.
Marine Le Pen notably wants to leave religion and politics in the locker room.
However, she rarely deprived herself of doing so, as when she criticized Benzema in December for not singing La Marseillaise.
Once in power, she intends to create a sports festival in each school and promote inter-school competitions.
On a daily basis, the member for Pas-de-Calais is not a great sportswoman.
In an interview with Gala, she admits that with her elected schedule and the campaign, she has little time to devote to these hobbies.
She barely keeps up at the gym with a bit of bodybuilding.
Her real passion, however, remains horse riding, which she has been practicing since adolescence and which she likes to indulge in during her holidays.
Emmanuel Macron
Since his election in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has dreamed of himself as a new Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
Hyper-active president, he has multiplied the communication operations where he plays football, rides a bike with his wife, supports the French football team in Russia, anxious to appear as a young dynamic president.
This fan of Olympique de Marseille also appeared with Kylian Mbappé, yet a star of Paris Saint-Germain to get his messages across.
The already collector's photo of Emmanuel Macron exploding with joy in the stands of the World Cup final https://t.co/YALtHgHiNe pic.twitter.com/Hmb8vG5n2f
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) July 16, 2018
However, at the level of political action in the field of sports, the results are less dynamic.
The quinquennium had however started well, with the announcement with great fanfare of a sport and society law.
This was finally adopted on the sly at the very end of the mandate, with a text – if not a measure on the parity of sports federations, largely behind in this field – very meager.
Of the 36 Olympic federations, only three are led by women.
They must represent 50% at the next renewal in 2024.
A sequence illustrates in particular the missed meeting between French sport and Emmanuel Macron.
During a reception at the Élysée Palace for medalists from the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, the French president called on the athletes to "do more" with a view to Paris 2024. A regular reprimand that the athletes had little taste for.
"France is a great sporting nation, but to think that we are going to win 90 medals in Paris 2024, no. We have to do a lot more things to claim 90 medalists in three years. We had to invest already seven years back in sport, massively," said Teddy Rinner.
Jean-Luc Melenchon
In “The Future in Common”, the program book of insubordinate France by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, sport is not neglected.
A 24-page booklet is devoted to the subject, co-written in particular by Bally Bagayoko, associative activist and former basketball player as well as Sarah Soilihi, doctoral student in law and world kick-boxing champion, for "a popular and emancipatory sports practice".
President of the Republic, Jean-Luc Mélenchon intends to launch a major investment in local sports infrastructure to ecological standards.
The rebellious also intends to promote free practice for low-income populations.
He also wants a big plan to fight against doping and all the excesses of sport, thus following in the footsteps of Marie-Georges Buffet, Minister of Sports from 1997 to 2002 in the Jospin government.
On a personal level, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is far from being a fan of sport.
Unlike many of his competitors, the leader of the left in the polls admits that he does not really do sport: "Climbing the stairs of the metro while running. This is the sport I practice during the day. But, depending on the line that I frequent, there can be a lot of steps", he explained to Ouest-France in February 2022. And otherwise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon has converted to OM since he has been a deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône .
He who has long, and paraphrasing Marx, made football "the opium of the people".
Valerie Pécresse
Minister for five years of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012), Valérie Pécresse came out exhausted and out of shape from this period of her life.
After the defeat of the right in the presidential election and then in the legislative elections, she decided to take control of herself.
Boxing is a first revelation.
Pilates is next.
But his great passion remains tennis.
Valérie Pécresse wanted to make sport one of the major axes of her campaign.
As of February 19, she put forward her proposals to become the "president of French sport".
It summarizes its priorities on four axes: protecting high-level athletes, opening sport to all, launching a major sports investment plan and putting sport at the center of public policies.
Contacted, Teddy Riner and Leïla Slimani were not aware.
Judoka's response from Brazil: "😂".
Response from the novelist: "I find it very inelegant. Nothing would horrify me more! That said, it would make a great idea for a novel!".
No comment at Pierre de Villiers https://t.co/RufSisPol4
– Julien Nény (@JulienNeny) March 19, 2022
The president of the Île-de-France Region experienced a hiccup during her campaign.
As she declaimed her dream government, she mentioned the possibility of seeing judoka Teddy Rinner as a minister in her government.
The living legend of French judo replied with a simple hilarious emoji, according to franceinfo.
Philippe Poutou
Just like in that of the other Trotskyist candidate for the presidential election, Nathalie Arthaud, sport does not appear anywhere in the program of Philippe Poutou (NPA).
However, the municipal councilor of the city of Bordeaux is not stingy on the subject, especially when it comes to denouncing the ultraliberal excesses of professional football: "It [fault] lead a rigorous fight against chauvinism, racism and homophobia that reign there. Then, it is necessary to free football from dough, to return to an amateur sport in the spirit at least", he explained in an interview with SoFoot during his candidacy in 2017 .
And the candidate-worker does not hesitate to go against the mood of the moment to defend his positions.
In July 2018, after the victory against Belgium in the semi-finals of the World Cup and the scenes of jubilation on the Champs-Élysées, he did not hesitate to be ironic, collecting a volley of green wood in passing: ""It is happening what on the Champs-Élysées?
There are weird people!
Is there a demonstration against the government's anti-social attacks?
An awakening of the population which is finally mobilizing against layoffs or for the reception of refugees?
It had to happen.
Phew," he wrote.
What's going on tonight on the Champs Élysées?
There are weird people!
Is there a demonstration against the government's anti-social attacks?
An awakening of the population which is finally mobilizing against layoffs or for the reception of refugees?
It had to happen.
Phew.
— Philippe Poutou (@PhilippePoutou) July 10, 2018
On a personal level, the Bordelais is a historic fan of the Girondins de Bordeaux.
However, this should not be seen as an electoral recovery to access the municipal council in 2020: Philippe Poutou has not set foot there again since the inauguration of the new Matmut Atlantique stadium... "The only reason to switch to this new pregnant was to make more money, especially with the naming", he regrets.
Fabien Roussel
Friday, March 25, the communist candidate made the buzz by publicly encouraging "his big boy", Kevin Oumar, MMA fighter.
Proud father of a blended family, Fabien Roussel considers the eldest son of his ex-partner as his eldest son.
"Oumar is his father's name," explains the candidate to BFMTV.
"I partly raised him; we're a big blended family. He's my big son."
As a good communist, Fabien Roussel spent his youth through the FSGT, Sports and Gymnastics Federation of Labor, the popular education sports federation created at the beginning of the 20th century by a journalist from Humanity.
He says he retains from this period of his life the ability to "walk on his hands and do backflips, two very useful skills in politics".
Now he prefers to run when his schedule allows, between "8 and 10 kilometers" per session.
Today my big boy is going to fight in MMA at the UAE Warriors Africa in Abu Dhabi.
Go there big guy, you're the best!#KevinOumar #Fiertédepapa pic.twitter.com/tMvNH3Jtge
– Fabien Roussel (@Fabien_Roussel) March 25, 2022
The PCF candidate intends to invest massively in sport.
A full-fledged ministry will be dedicated to it and will have a budget of 3 billion, or 1% of the total budget.
Inspired by General de Gaulle, he wants to launch a new investment plan in swimming pools and, more generally, in local infrastructure.
Finally, it wants to allow all children to have access to more hours of physical education and sports.
Eric Zemmour
If he comes to power, the far-right polemicist intends to "put sport back at the service of France and the French", in the words of his program.
For Éric Zemmour, this goes through two axes that are not afraid to be paradoxical: putting sport back at the service of the nation while protecting it from ideologies and lobbies.
The ex-editorialist in the campaign wishes in particular to relaunch the Games of La Francophonie and the Mediterranean to make them a vector of influence – note that these two events still exist.
He also wants to impose political neutrality on athletes and prohibit veiled women from practicing sport and require transsexuals to compete in the category of their birth sex.
The candidate of "Reconquest!", a great defender of virilism, obviously describes himself as an inveterate sportsman.
According to Gala and Paris Match, during the campaign, he would find time to go swimming and play tennis.
Despite his defense of neutrality, he knows the influence that sport can have on society.
The multi-convicted for incitement to hatred had thus given an interview to Pierre Ménès, the very popular sports columnist under investigation for sexual harassment.
At the beginning of April, he also tried to create an event by going to a sports complex belonging to the Zidane family, in Marseille.
The candidate was escorted off the field at the request of the brother of the world champion.
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