Olympic joy eclipses France’s political drama

What’s driving the day in Brussels.
By NICHOLAS VINOCUR
with ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH
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GREETINGS. This is Nick Vinocur, writing Playbook from Italy’s Latina region, where the beach concessions are doing brisk business under the blazing sun, despite Europe’s best efforts to rein in the lettino e ombrellone cartels. (For the record, we are a spiaggia libera family this year.) For the latest on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s existential effort to maintain the Italian quirk that allows bar and club owners exclusive rights to portions of the shoreline, read this report by my colleague Giovanna Faggionato.
POLITICS ON HOLD AS MARCHAND-MANIA GRIPS FRANCE: The reports are in and they’re unanimous. The Paris Olympics have accomplished the incredible feat of getting the French to stop grumbling, ignore politics and unite in stunned admiration of Léon Marchand, the 22-year-old swimmer who has swept up four gold medals and a bronze.
Sound on: It’s worth watching the crowds erupt in raucous renditions of “La Marseillaise” — tweaked to replace the word marchons (let’s walk) with Marchand … get it? — and whole streets cheering the young Toulousian’s victories. “The whole country is united in the stunned and incredulous contemplation of this champion who came from nowhere,” wrote the Midi Libre, a regional daily based in southern France.
Don’t take it from me. One American visiting Paris for the Olympics wrote in to Playbook to report they’d attempted to switch the TV at a sports bar to a soccer game, causing the locals to “freak out.” “They only want to watch swimming,” the visitor said. “They really love Léon Marchand.”
Ya think? The joy over Marchand and fervor over the Olympics in general have single-handedly flipped the national mood after months of political angst and griping about preparations for the Games. While France may be no closer to having a prime minister, it’s got its mojo back thanks to Olympic exuberance eclipsing politics as a topic of conversation — for now.
Positive patriotism: Benjamin Haddad, a lawmaker in Macron’s centrist Ensemble party, whose constituency is in Paris’ tony 16th district, tells Playbook “this is a great moment of positive patriotism. We see the Parisians who left the city [to escape the Olympics] actually coming back to soak up the ambiance.” A local who stayed in the capital concurs, saying the whole place feels like a giant theme park, kitted out with BMX tracks, skateparks, basketball courts and so on — shades of the 1889 Paris Expo, for which the Eiffel Tower was constructed.
New monument unlocked: Paris is now considering adding a new monument to its permanent skyline: The balloon that holds the Olympic flame, which rises each evening above the Tuileries Gardens. 
But this is a still a politics newsletter. France has been without a government since the second round of its legislative election on July 7, when a left-wing coalition took the biggest chunk of seats in the National Assembly. (The far-right National Rally also entered the parliament with its biggest faction to date.) Per Haddad, negotiations to form a new government won’t start in earnest again until after the Olympics are over.
“This is not the time to rush things. We’re going to have to learn how to compromise,” Haddad said. Indeed, building coalitions isn’t in France’s political DNA, and the last month’s sharp-elbowed jockeying proved this over and over again. “I’m in favor of widening our alliance out to the [conservative] Les Républicains who are constructive, but that won’t be enough, we’ll also have to include the democratic left.”
Back to Earth: Despite the good vibes, President Emmanuel Macron himself isn’t likely to reap any political dividends from the Olympics, argues Eurasia Group analyst Mujtaba Rahman. Rahman said that after the Olympics, the “usual national state of exaggerated self-criticism will reassert itself in a very French way.”
Rude awakening: “The political situation is an utter mess and no clarity is emerging in the run-up to when the National Assembly reconvenes on October 1, when really serious questions about the budget will come up,” Rahman said. “All of this will reassert itself in the fall.”
Glimmers: A person close to Macron’s administration said a government could well come together earlier than expected — before the kickoff of the Paralympic Games on Aug. 28. 
Shaky ground: But whatever coalition emerges from these negotiations will be anaemic and short-lived, said Rahman. “It’s either a very weak coalition of the willing or a technocratic government that can’t do very much. And both of those fall apart when they try to form a government. I think it’s a big mess, with consequences for European policy.”
Bottom line: Like many Parisians — your Playbook author grew up there — I wanted to be as far from the city as possible when the first prohibitive fencing went up in preparation for the Games. But, as I hear about the exceptional ambiance, I now wish I’d caught a glimpse of it first-hand — and can only applaud the French for ignoring politics for a few weeks. There’s plenty of time to be miserable in the fall.
HARRIS LINES UP HER VEEP: The honeymoon is over for the Democrats’ new presidential candidate, and now all eyes are on whom Kamala Harris will choose as her running mate for November’s election. Harris could announce her decision as early as today, in time for a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
The rumor mill in Washington has been running rampant, as several top contenders met with Harris’ vetting team, spearheaded by former Attorney General Eric Holder. The team has spent the past couple of weeks combing through candidates’ old campaign ads, media appearances, years of financial records, family histories and questionnaires. According to my U.S. colleagues, Harris held face-to-face sit-downs with the three leading contenders — Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — at her official residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington on Sunday.
ICYMI: Here’s POLITICO’s guide to the Democratic vice presidential contenders and their respective pros and cons.
TRUMP OR HARRIS? BRUSSELS IS PREPARING FOR BOTH. A group of staffers inside the European Commission is wargaming multiple scenarios for the U.S. presidential election, not least the reelection of Donald Trump, according to two EU officials who confirmed a report by the Financial Times late last week that such preparations were under way.
Studying the options: The team is made up of experts drawn from across the Commission and has been at work for at least six months, the sources said. A Commission spokesperson said the Commission and the European External Action Service are considering “all possible outcomes” and holding discussions on this with EU member countries. The spokesperson stressed they’re engaging with American counterparts “on a bipartisan basis.”
WHAT KYIV IS READING: POLITICO’s Editor-at-Large Matt Kaminski slices through preconceptions and bluster about how the Trump and Harris administrations would deal with Ukraine, arguing that both camps are engaged in dynamic, fluid debates that could work in Kyiv’s favor. “If you block out the noise around Trump and look at actual actions, the potential for a far more sympathetic approach to Ukraine is coming into focus,” Kaminski writes. “As for Harris, she almost certainly wouldn’t bring the same people or basic assumptions as Biden in her approach to the war — which might also be good for Ukraine.”
WHAT ELSE HARRIS AND TRUMP HAVE IN COMMON: They’re both determined to put astronauts back on the moon to build a lunar base, write my colleagues Joshua Posaner and Matt Berg.
TRUMP AND TRADE: If Trump wins in November, his administration is poised to pursue an even more disruptive set of trade policies than during his first term, according to his trade guru Robert Lighthizer. My colleague Gavin Bade reports the prospect is already raising alarm in foreign capitals, on Wall Street and among many economists.
NOW WATCH … Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has admitted in a video on X that he once dumped a dead bear — yes, you read that right — in New York’s Central Park, in advance of the anecdote being reported by the New Yorker. We’ll let him explain it.
PARLIAMENT PUSHING BACK AT HUNGARY’S RUSSIA VISA SCHEME: A backlash is growing against Hungary’s decision to ease visa restrictions for Russians and Belarusians. After Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson warned the EU would take action if the visa scheme is deemed a “risk,” a group of lawmakers in the European Parliament is leaning on the EU’s executive branch to crack down on Budapest — including possibly suspending Hungary from the Schengen free-travel zone.
“We call on the European Commission to take urgent measures to investigate Hungary’s decision, as it could represent a loophole and potentially jeopardise the overall functioning of the Schengen area and its role as a secure space for citizens,” said a letter initiated by Czech lawmaker Danuše Nerudová and Lithuania’s Petras Auštrevičius.
Waving the stick: “If the Hungarian government refuses to change its policy, the Commission and all EU representatives should question Hungarian presence in the Schengen area by introducing new measures to safeguard European citizens, including new controls at Hungarian borders if necessary,” the letter goes on. It also floats the possibility for other EU states to not recognize Hungarian visas and introduce controls at the country’s border. 
As of Sunday evening, the letter had gathered nearly 70 signatures, including former Belgian and Irish prime ministers.
RETALIATION FEARS: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his G7 counterparts on Sunday that Iran and Hezbollah could attack Israel as soon as today, three sources briefed on the call told Axios. Blinken said it’s unclear what the retaliation will be, according to Axios, and called on the foreign ministers to apply diplomatic pressure on Iran, Hezbollah and Israel to exercise restraint after the killings of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut and a top Hamas official in Tehran.
Get out while you can: European countries are joining those urging their citizens to leave Lebanon as fears of a wider regional war grow.
UNITY ON CHINESE EVS: EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said he expects member countries to support imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in November, despite divisions about how strongly Brussels should push back against Beijing’s allegedly unfair trade practices, the FT reports.
NEW EPP JOBS: Francesco Sismondini, from Italy, was elected chairman of the European Democrat Students, the EPP’s student wing, at a meeting in Malta. Vladimir Kljajic, from Serbia, was elected secretary-general. EPP chief Manfred Weber congratulated the pair on social media.
HOW TO KEEP RUSSIA FROM ATTACKING: If the EU wants to deter expanding Russian aggression, it must get much better at moving tanks, troops and ammo across the Continent, top French General Bertrand Toujouse told my colleague Laura Kayali.
IT’S NOT LIKE THE COLD WAR: The largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War was very different from swaps of the past — Russian spies and criminals are now being traded for ordinary Westerners and Russian dissidents, not their peers. And Russia isn’t the only country dramatically instrumentalizing this, writes Elisabeth Braw.
NOW READ THIS: “Moscow’s spies were stealing U.S. tech — until the FBI started a sabotage campaign,” by Zach Dorfman in POLITICO Magazine.
EUROPE MUST CLAMP DOWN ON DRUG TRADE, PARAGUAY SAYS: European countries must do more to help South America fight drug-related organized crime, Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña told the FT in an interview.
UK RIOTS: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned far-right rioting which has seen gangs burn buildings, attack Muslims and ethnic minorities and clash with police over the weekend. Latest by Joe Stanley-Smith.
MEANWHILE, IN BANGLADESH: Nearly 100 people died and hundreds were injured on Sunday during anti-government protests calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
WEATHER: High of 24C, sunny.
BRETON’S GREATEST HITS (AND MISSES): With Thierry Breton returning to the Berlaymont for another fun-filled five years, POLITICO takes a look at some of his more memorable moments. Who could forget the time he blabbed on Trump? When he helped oust Margrethe Vestager’s economist? Or that time he scooped the X probe with an X post?
BRUSSELS SHOOTINGS: A person was critically injured in a shooting on Avenue de Stalingrad on Saturday night, Brussels police said. Emergency services were called to the scene, between Bruxelles-Midi railway station and Grand Place, at around 7 p.m. As the Brussels Times reports, it’s the second shooting on Stalingrad in recent months.
Separately, Belgian police said they’d arrested one of the country’s most wanted criminals, a 25-year-old man suspected of involvement in a fatal shooting in Forest in 2020, on Saturday.
SOCCER PLAYERS WANTED: Brussels-based football club FC Irlande is looking for new players. The club comprises six men’s teams (including two for those aged over 39), and three women’s teams. There are two training sessions a week, with games on weekends. “We like to think we’re more than a club, we’re a place where you can make friends for life,” one member writes in to tell us. Pre-season training has already started, with the regular season kicking off at the end of August. If you’re interested, check out FC Irlande on Facebook, and email expressions of interest here.
IN THE WOODS: Discover stand-up comedy and young jazz artists in the serene scenery of Bois de la Cambre this week. Details here.
BIRTHDAYS: European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis; National Rally leader Marine Le Pen; Nuno Brito, Portuguese ambassador to the U.K. and former ambassador to the EU; Best for Britain and Pandemic Action Network co-founder Eloise Todd; former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford; Playbook alum Jack Lahart; Hun Sen, former prime minister of Cambodia.
THANKS TO: Playbook editor Alex Spence, Playbook Reporter Šejla Ahmatović and producer Dean Southwell.
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