As France "readies itself to host the European Championship, the country’s prime minister felt obliged to make a public statement," according to Jim White of the London TELEGRAPH. Nothing unusual in that, "you might think, politicians are generally quick to bask in sporting triumph." Except French PM Manuel Valls’s intervention was "altogether less buoyant." Speaking just a week before the opening game of the tournament, Valls said, "Bitterness, criticism, scandals have no place and no meaning at this time. Everyone needs to get behind Les Bleus." Valls’s comments about the requirement to support the national effort "were timely, a robust response to the drift of issues piling up as the country readies itself for what is being optimistically advertised as a month-long carnival of football." Every host of a major sports event "faces last-minute issues." But the French "seem to have taken things to an entirely new level." Accusations "of racism in squad selection; the center-forward booed by his own supporters; a spate of injuries to key players; a squad member suspended for breaching drug regulations; the country in security lockdown under a hovering threat of terrorist attack; a wave of opportunistic strikes crippling public services; a ban on booze being sold within five miles when England play Wales in Lens; and the Seine threatening to burst its banks after a fortnight of almost continuous rain." Apart from that, "it all seems to be running rather smoothly" (TELEGRAPH, 6/5).
