Smile: Why Emmanuel Macron no longer wants to succeed

It is said that the Ukrainians have a new verb – «macronate». It means something like ‘to talk without saying much’. By this, the Selenski advisers mean, among other things, the fact that the French government has already wanted to supply many weapons, including Leclerc tanks, but that this has not yet happened.

Also in Beijing, the French president “macronized” at a recent press conference until the host, Xi Jinping, made a face. Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin let Macron unflinchingly reject the many phone calls that the Frenchman hopefully initiated.

However, it would be unfair to dismiss macaroons as a namesake fad. Macron is worth listening to. Usually he is right. Keeping in touch with a notorious liar like Putin is never wrong in the middle of a war.

And explaining to the world why Europeans have different interests towards China than Americans is relevant in the Taiwan conflict. Macron also has good arguments for raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64 – rising cash deficits and life expectancy, plus the European comparison.

But Macron almost never manages to win over his compatriots to his noble ideas and projects. In mid-March, he appeared before the television audience to explain once more the meaning of the pension reform. He did it well and understandably – and yet the performance was a disaster.

The head of the radical CGT union, Sophie Binet, summed it up, describing Macron as “ChatGPT President”. In other words, as a man of artificial intelligence. With a forgiving, balanced, even felt appearance, he could have changed many a doubter’s mind. Only his arguments sound technocratically cold and bossy – and that’s what really ignited the sparks of resistance: Days later there were nightly riots with countless injured.

A victory that looks like a defeat

The constitutional court has now ruled in favor of Macron. Last Monday, the president appeared before the cameras again. This time he wanted to do better. Eager to draw a line under pension reform, he has now announced a series of new projects, from expanding emergency centers to fighting illegal immigration.

The whole thing within “100 days”, which should probably be reminiscent of Napoleon’s era of the same name. The left-wing politician Clémentine Autain sarcastically recalled that the Emperor’s 100 Days ended with the battle (and defeat) of Waterloo.

The alleged winner of the pension dispute therefore appears to be a loser. He is more unpopular than ever and above all politically isolated. Even old “Macronists” such as Jacques Attali, Thierry Breton or Daniel Cohn-Bendit have distanced themselves. Like all narcissists, Macron never considered building strong seconds.

The president’s party, called the Renaissance, is nothing more than an empty shell. Since last year, she has not had a majority in the National Assembly. Macron, the smart and lucky man who fell on his lap in the 2017 presidential election at the Elysée Palace, today has gray temples. Nothing will work for him anymore.

His main enemy, the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen, is on the rise. Although Macron can no longer run in the next Elysée elections, she has been the silent favorite since the pension reform. Precisely he, the flaming European, must ask himself whether it is not he himself who supports Le Pen’s rise – unintentionally, of course – by arousing national disgust.

His compatriots certainly remember how Macron promised them a “revolution” in book form when he was first elected. But once in office, using the anagram of “Macron”, he turned into a “Monarc”.

The smug, often self-righteous free-choice monarch (“I do what I want”) doesn’t understand why his charm number has stopped working. He has good arguments, sometimes even convictions, and not just from the right, as the left laments: only the strong state has helped France through the pandemic, he explains; He abhors racism as sincerely as any violence.

“Pan lids never got us anywhere,” he told reform opponents this week, who wanted to drown him out with waterfalls of noise. Macron can often macron and maneuver, but he believes in the power of civilized, intelligent words, not brutal cobblestones.

Despite the success for the political end

Politicians like Frédéric Dabi, however, are already feeling the mood of a ‘fin de règne’, an end to the regime. Le Pen says Macron has three choices: new elections, a referendum on the retirement age of 64 or resignation. Macron would lose anyway.

He could also change his prime minister, but that would only give the impression that she had to take the blame from the president. An alliance with the conservatives would be conceivable to achieve a government majority in the National Assembly. The Republicans, however, do not want to.

In short: Macron’s ways out all seem blocked. The situation of his opponents is different: their stubborn street protests continue and on May 1 a new peak is coming. In June, the small Liot centrist faction wants to push through a new pension debate in parliament. The Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024 could also exert pressure.

A hashtag is already threatening on Twitter: “No withdrawal (of the reform), no games!” Macron is aware of the danger after the British King Charles III. has postponed his visit to Paris because of the pension protests. He, the French king, holds the fortress until further notice. (aargauerzeitung.ch)