Right-wingers cry foul at Paris Olympics poster

French conservatives and far-right figures fumed Tuesday at the official poster for this summer's Paris Olympics, complaining a Christian cross and French tricolour flags were missing.

Those responsible for the image were "ready to deny France, going so far as to distort reality to cancel its history," Francois-Xavier Bellamy of the right-wing Republicans party wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Top of the list of complaints about the fantastical Parisian panorama is a cross which in real life tops the Dome des Invalides, part of a historic military complex in central Paris which is the site of the tomb of Napoleon.

Its absence from the version depicted on the stylised poster led Marion Marechal of the far-right Reconquete (Reconquest) party to ask in her own post on X: "What is the point of holding the Olympic Games in France if we then hide who we are?"

And National Rally (RN) lawmaker Nicolas Meizonnet wrote that the omissions must be the result of "wokism" -- a bugbear of France's far right.

Artist Ugo Gattoni's design, unveiled on Monday, features a cartoonish Paris cityscape with major landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and a wealth of tiny details, including all 54 Olympic and Paralympic sports.

In reaction to the controversy, he said he had rendered buildings "in the way they come to my mind without any ulterior motive."

"I am not aiming to make them accurate to the originals but rather to make them recognisable at a glance, placing them within a surrealist and celebratory universe," he added in a statement sent to AFP by the organising committee.

The organising committee said that the posters were a "light-hearted interpretation of a reinvented stadium-city."

A surfing wave is seen "offshore of the Marseille Marina; the Eiffel Tower is pink; the Metro is passing through the Arc de Triomphe –- none of which should be the object of politically-motivated interpretations," it added.

The colours of the French flag -- blue, white and red -- were present in the mascots’ rosettes, while other national symbols such as Marianne were also visible, it added.

The Paris Olympics are set to take place from July 26-August 11 followed by the Paralympics from August 28-September 8.

Organisers have faced criticism before over their choices for the Games' aesthetics and merchandise.

Last year, critics pounced on the fact that the official mascots for Paris 2024 were mostly being made in China, while others suggested the cuddly red triangles resembled a clitoris.