Politics, the choice of the week Podcast Podcast
Macron, the upset European
Emmanuel Macron has been more than ever at the center of the European scene this year. But his failures sometimes overshadowed his successes.
Even if the European elections have passed, Emmanuel Macron has not given up on reforming Europe . A scene illustrated this fact during the last European Council in Brussels: while all the heads of state and government quickly disappeared at the end, the French president granted a press conference of almost an hour to journalists . He admitted that several of his European priorities were not progressing as he wanted: "the account is not there ", he acknowledged, in relation to his desire to strengthen the euro zone, the plan for the fight against global warming has been held back by Poland, and its idea of setting up a Convention for the re-founding of Europe has been slowed down by what it has called the " castrating impulses " of certain member states.
However, Emmanuel Macron again hammered out a proactive message, putting on the table his own proposals: a “ Marshall Plan ” for massive investment by Europe to face the challenges of tomorrow (climate, migration, digital) or even the revision of the budgetary rules deemed too restrictive. The environmental MEP David Cormand, critic of the action of the Head of State, recognizes it: " Macron is the first French president to take the European question seriously ".
Method problem
And the elected to add: " The problem is that it goes like a handle! Many agree that it is the method that hurts. If we look in the rear view mirror, Emmanuel Macron has suffered two failures this year which have sometimes overshadowed his successes. His list in the European elections in May held up rather well against the extreme right, but the arrival of his elected representatives in Brussels was missed. After a communication error, the Nathalie Loiseau MEP could not take the head of the European centrist group renamed " Renew Europe ". A missed opportunity for elected macronists to lead a political group which is now the third largest in the European Parliament.
Second failure, more resounding: the rejection of the French candidate Sylvie Goulard for a position within the new European Commission. To impose a candidate rejected by the government in France for legal matters was a political error. The European right of the EPP took the opportunity to strike a sharp blow to the French president and to take revenge for the affront that Emmanuel Macron had inflicted on him in June by blocking the appointment of its leader, Manfred Weber, at the head of the same Commission.
Each time, the same reproaches come back in the corridors of the European institutions: " too arrogant ", " too sure of himself ", Emmanuel Macron impulses but annoyed. He would fish out of pride as much as out of ignorance of the functioning of the European system, within which he still lacks a relay.
The presidential election of 2022 in the crosshairs
Despite these snubs, his relatives repeat: Emmanuel Macron is to date the only leader who trains Europe. The English are leaving , the Spanish, the Italians and above all the Germans are weakened. Chancellor Angela Merkel is at the end of her reign. The supporters of the French president no longer hesitate to say that Germany " takes pleasure in immobility and the status quo".
Bad news for Emmanuel Macron who, without Germany, will find it difficult to achieve the concrete results he expects on the European scene. Because the head of state has in sight the presidential election of 2022. And, coincidentally, France will take the rotating presidency of the European Union on January 1, 2022. The story of a "Macron, conquering leader of a Renaissance Europe ”is already planned by its strategists. From dream to reality, there is still a long way to go…
On the same subject