Like many others, I watched French President Emmanuel Macron speaking to the press on Wednesday (16 January), and I was among those disappointed but not surprised.
Macron has outstanding oratory skills, but beautiful phrases could not mask the lack of political substance expected from the leader of the only EU country with a permanent seat at the UN Security Council and the only one possessing a nuclear arsenal.
The EU needs leadership, and France was expected to provide more of it, especially after Brexit. The best leadership, of course, is to lead by example.
Unfortunately, France is not in great shape to lead, especially since Macron lost his parliamentary majority after a crushing blow in the June 2022 parliamentary elections.
The parliamentary election saw a new left-wing alliance make gains to become the main opposition. At the same time, the far right under Marine Le Pen posted its best legislative performance in its history.
This was a significant blow for Macron, who had just started his second presidential term. This should normally be his best time because, in a second mandate, a president is independent and able to push for reforms and the country’s interests without worrying about his rating and re-election.
His push for pension reform will be remembered by big protests against the reform bill proposed by the government to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64.
France has a bizarre legal way for the government to ignore Parliament. Article 49.3 of the French Constitution allows governments to bypass the National Assembly and force through bills without a vote.
Under former prime minister Elisabeth Borne, this article was used 23 times, more than once a month on average, in her less than 20 months in office. Only Michel Rocard used it more – 28 times – between 1988 and 1991.
Another piece of legislation, the immigration reform, was passed with the support of right-wing and far-right parties after parliament rejected a previous draft. Macron, who won his first presidential mandate as a centrist, now presides over a new government largely perceived as centre-right.
In his speech, there was insufficient substance regarding reforms intended to make the country as competitive as the United States. Needless to say, the same reforms are badly needed at the EU level, where Macron had been among the first to insist on Europe’s strategic autonomy, as well as a ‘regulatory pause’.
Maybe because Macron cannot promise legislative changes, he mostly floated ideas about societal improvements, such as children learning the national anthem in primary school, introducing uniforms in school, taking control of youth screens, improving birth leave, and a “fertility plan” to boost the birth rate.
This is all very nice, but it was not what was expected from a president who decided to address the nation on prime-time TV – something that even Charles De Gaulle had not done.
And there were important issues Macron didn’t touch on, such as the challenge of artificial intelligence affecting our lives — which, by the way, was an important highlight in the New Year speech of Italy’s veteran President Sergio Mattarella, now 82.
The problem is, of course, that according to opinion polls, Marine Le Pen’s party, which Macron still calls “Front National” as it was called when her father was in charge and expressed clear far-right views, leads with some 30% of the vote, while the governing Renaissance lags at 20%.
In the outgoing European Parliament, Macron’s political force and Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National are at the level of 22 MEPs each.
European elections offer a clearer view of the balance of forces in France because they are proportional. In legislative elections, the “triangular” model applies, with a second round in which the candidates who could not win alone must have the support of other parties.
As a result, parties such as Le Pen’s have so far been ostracised, and we have seen the same happening in the 2002 presidential election, with a runoff between incumbent Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen. The supporters of socialist Lionel Jospin and others had to pinch their noses and vote for the lesser evil.
In a Nordic-type democracy, if the ruling party loses the European elections, the expected outcome would be for the government to resign. This is unlikely to happen in France, and Macron has already explained that Le Pen’s force was the “party of lies,” which could only weaken the country.
Another question is whether Macron’s political force is credible after essentially becoming centre-right in France, while in the European Parliament, it poses as liberal.
After all this criticism, I want to say that if I were French, I would probably have voted for Macron, not because he inspires me, but because of the poor choice in the French electoral market. But let’s be optimistic: France is a great democracy, and there will be better times ahead.
The Roundup
Hungary doubled down on Thursday on its demands for EU support to Ukraine to be reviewed annually, effectively reserving itself a veto right, as negotiations between EU member states on the issue continue ahead of a decisive 1 February summit.
EU countries and the European Parliament reached an agreement on Thursday on new rules tightening CO2 limits on heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs), paving the way for a significant increase in the number of clean trucks and buses across the bloc.
The German liberal party, the FDP, is pushing to cut red tape at the EU level in its campaign for the European elections, rivalling the conservative CDU/CSU (EPP) which wants to move Europe “from the Green Deal to an Economic Deal”.
President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to scrap Agnès Pannier-Runacher’s Energy Transition Ministry leaves open the question of who will drive France’s energy policy in Brussels.
President Macron has vowed to defend a “sovereign Europe” ahead of European elections in June, but his recent conservative turn and willingness to mirror the far-right’s rhetoric on issues of identity and immigration may derail his campaign away from key EU matters.
France will take charge of steering an ammunition and missile production coalition for Ukraine after it managed to half artillery production times, French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Thursday.
Re-Imagine Europa think tank has launched a booklet with tips for navigating polarised conversations on the highly contentious topic of the new rules on plants’ gene editing, which is due to be voted on by the Parliament’s environment committee on 24 January.
Europe’s armed forces that want to cooperate must make sure their cyber-defence technologies and methods are compatible, Belgium’s Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder warned on Wednesday.
A new make-up of the next Commission team should include a reshuffle of the foreign policy and defence portfolio, according to a draft European People’s Party (EPP) manifesto, seen by Euractiv.
Don’t miss this week’s edition of the EU Politics Decoded: Which parties have their act together?
Look out for…
- World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Monday-Friday.
- Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson and Finnish PM Petteri Orpo in Stockholm on Friday.
- Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič meets with Jakob Stausholm, CEO of Rio Tinto – in Davos on Friday.
- Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas participates in Brussels Cybersecurity Summit on Friday.
Views are the author’s
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Alice Taylor]
Source: euractiv.com
