One of Virginia Raggi’s first measures when she became mayor of Rome was to withdraw the capital’s candidacy to host the 2024 Olympic Games. As we now know, it was Paris that won the burden and honor of organizing thanks to an ambitious project that combined sustainability and inclusion.

Yesterday, before the eyes of the world, an opening ceremony was broadcast that will be remembered for many reasons, the first being that it was the first to take place in the streets of the host city rather than at the Olympic Stadium. In front of the boats that paraded on the Seine, several exponents of the Italian centrist galaxy such as Matteo Renzi – who was prime minister at the time – regretted the fact that the Olympics were being held in Paris rather than Rome.

An inclusive and feminist ceremony

Too bad, one might think, since the Olympics together with the Jubilee would have initially caused many inconveniences but would probably have contributed to improving the city. The ceremony did not only gather positive opinions (the New York Times called it “a masterpiece of history and surprise, of kitsch and sport, of art and fashion” and the British newspaper The Guardian a “highly kitsch” show), but we must give credit to our French cousins ​​for having tried to send a message of love, of inclusion and for having dedicated an entire space to feminism by celebrating some women who have made the history of French culture, science and politics.

The staging was not always up to par and the rain certainly contributed to the confused and botched performance, but the message came through loud and clear and was well summarized in X by political analyst Julien Hoez, close to President Macron’s party: “In France we do not bow to any type of religious fanaticism. We are a tolerant and open country that supports the ideals of the Enlightenment – and he concludes with an appeal – you are kindly requested to take your bigotry elsewhere”.

Hoez is referring to the moment of the ceremony dedicated to the ballrooms where professional dancers, models, drag queens and people with disabilities, such as the Italian Paralympic fencing champion Bebe Vio, paraded. What made Catholic extremists around the world furious was the reference to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper that opened this segment, considered blasphemous even by the Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini. Yet the famous fresco has entered the popular imagination and has been re-proposed in many fashion articles, advertising images for films and television series and I am sure that you too have a photo on your phone of a table of friends where those present mime The Last Supper. Thinking badly, one might wonder whether in this case the problem is not so much the painting itself as the homage to the LGBTQI+ community. Who knows.

Rai commentators failed

Also raising some Christian eyebrows was the moment dedicated to Freedom, which featured a ménage a trois between a girl and two boys (evidently a reference to François Truffault’s masterpiece Jules et Jim). This moment left the two Rai commentators Franco Bragagna and Alberto Romagnoli speechless, who did not comment on either the scene inspired by Jules et Jim or the ballroom on the Seine. The two found themselves unprepared many times when faced with references to French popular culture and beyond. They only mentioned Lady Gaga’s Italian origins (who do they think they are, Simona Ventura?), they did not recognize Serena Williams and they confused the torchbearer and champion Amélie Mauresmo with the swimmer Laure Manaudou, of whom they only talked about her sentimental rivalry with Federica Pellegrini: evidently they only feel comfortable with love triangles that have straight people as protagonists.

At the Olympics, the Last Supper parody: drag queens instead of the apostles. “Christianity mocked”

Even during the most anticipated moment, that of the passage of the Italian delegation, the two said of the flag bearer Arianna Errigo only that “she moved everyone during the delivery of the flag with her story of being the mother of two heterozygous twins who wouldn’t let her sleep”. Nothing about her, about the discipline she practices, about her records, about her exploits. Nothing. A mother. And speaking of mothers, Bragagna and Romagnoli, speaking of the Olympic village, were keen to underline that there is a nursery inside “for mothers”. The fathers, as usual, were not present. In addition to the moment in the ballroom, the two Rai journalists casually avoided mentioning “abortion” during the moment that celebrated the great women of France even though it appeared in the headlines that accompanied the unveiling of the statues dedicated to them. It must be an oversight in this case too, right?

There are even conspiracy theorists

Worse than the oversights, however, were the conspiracy theories that appeared on the web about the Ceremony. Some accounts claim that the figure of the knight dressed in silver who ran on the Seine was a reference to the book of Revelation and therefore a harbinger of the end of the world. But worse than the Qanon fanatics is the leader of the Brothers of Italy group Lucio Malan who mistook the bull of the Trocadero fountain (which has been there since 1937) for a blasphemous symbol. The post was then deleted and in its place remains a criticism of the Macronian administration for having celebrated the French Revolution. How dare they?

At this point, we could almost thank Virginia Raggi for denying Rome the Olympic Games, sparing us a parade of mandolins, gladiators and tank tops stained with sauce on the Italian chest of the male who must never ask. Instead, we truly and heartily thank our French cousins ​​who reminded us once again that if thousands of girls and boys leave our country every year, it is also because our ruling class is made up of bigoted people who are making Italy more similar to Orban’s Hungary than to enlightened, enlightened and enlightening France. Bravo!