We cannot deny that Macron has an impressive European record.
Each election in a Member State involves a collective challenge for the European Union. This is especially true in large states, where they have a greater capacity to influence. In this respect, in the midst of a multitude of simultaneous crises (climate, war in Ukraine, pandemic and socio-economic destabilization), the French elections (note the plural) are crucial for all Europeans.
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Each election in a Member State involves a collective challenge for the European Union. This is especially true in large states, where they have a greater capacity to influence. In this respect, in the midst of a multitude of simultaneous crises (climate, war in Ukraine, pandemic and socio-economic destabilization), the French elections (note the plural) are crucial for all Europeans. So far, Emmanuel Macron is flying over a very fragmented and immensely mediocre political landscape. Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour are simply incapable of exercising the presidential function. Valérie Pécresse and Anne Hidalgo appear as robotic creatures delivering without the slightest conviction the messages of their consultants, Jean-Luc Mélenchon as someone obsessed with his messianic image. Reviewing the televised debates between Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and François Mitterrand from 1974 and 1981 makes it possible to measure the incredible degeneration of French politicians – which affects everyone in the West. Certainly, Emmanuel Macron does not lack faults. Narcissistic (but who hasn’t been at the Elysée since 1958?), devoid of social and environmental fiber (which could provoke strong movements after his re-election), incapable of team spirit (which explains the calamitous state of his party), the French president is an ordinary orator (too navel-gazing, too bombastic and too long), even if he is, on the other hand, a remarkable debater. On the other hand, we cannot deny him a certain economic record, an undeniable capacity for crisis management, stubbornness in the defense of his ideas, and an impressive European record. In summary, more coherence than Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande. The European record, in particular, is striking. Without Macron, there would certainly not have been a European loan, a common economic recovery program, a European response to the coronavirus, nor a relaunch of the debate on European military capacity. Just imagine thirty seconds Marine Le Pen, François Fillon or Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the Elysée in 2017 to be convinced. If the crises helped, it took persistent, and often solitary, determination to stir up a Europe half fossilized by Merkel’s motionless “leadership”. The French president still lacks an institutional agenda, without which his ambitious proposals have no chance of seeing the light of day. There, moreover, resides the endemic weakness of France since 1958. Jean Monnet’s thought has always encountered resistance in Paris. For the rest, no French president since Mitterrand has contributed so much to the advancement of European integration. And it rubs off singularly in a European Council where the heads of government sink into a simplistic communication which aims only at their renewal and does not take into account any long-term stake. Admittedly, President Macron is not perfect. However, we hope that our French neighbors, obsessed with various fantasies, will not follow the Americans. These, by dint of finding Hillary Clinton too technocratic, too arrogant or too opportunistic, found themselves with Donald Trump. The price was colossal. You can always find worse. It is not in the interest of France, and even less that of the Europeans, who are entering an extremely dangerous period for the survival of the Union.
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