Emmanuel Macron has yet to go for a swim in the Seine. The second-term President of France had time to eat lunch with athletes at the Olympics but not for a quick dip in Paris’ most famous water.
Isn’t that interesting?
Macron, 46, promised to take a dip in the Seine to prove that his country’s $1.5 billion effort to clean up the contaminated water was a success. He continues to insist that, one day, he will. The swim is supposedly going to happen— just not not before the Games get underway later this week.
This is where the controversy (for lack of better word) lies. Macron swears the Seine is clean enough for Olympic athletes but won’t get in the water himself.
It has been illegal to swim in the Seine, a drainage basin that runs through the middle of Paris, for more than 120 years. Heavy rains overwhelm the city’s infrastructure and sewages leak into the basin. Large levels of E. coli contaminate the water.
The Seine is going to host the triathlon and swimming marathon in just a few days. There were a lot of concerns about safety because of high levels of bacteria in the water over the last few months.
French sports minister Améilie Odéa-Castéra made good on her promise to ensure the Seine’s safety and hopped in for a swim last week. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo recently did the same.
Macron has yet to do so and continues to cower from the poop water.
His team said that he will swim in the future, probably after the Games, to prove it is safe for swimming on a citizen level— not just for the world’s most important sporting event. But that defeats the purpose because Parisians don’t want to swim in the Seine anyway.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron had plenty of time to eat lunch at the Olympic Village on Monday!
Was the following photo op really that necessary?
It seems to me, a total outsider with very limited knowledge of his schedule, like Macron could’ve gone for a swim in the Seine at some point over the last few days. Perhaps during lunch… Coward!