Macron facing a triple crisis
Audio 02:39
Emmanuel Macron announced a second national confinement, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, on French television channels, in an attempt to fight against a second wave of the coronavirus resurfacing in the country.
AP Photo / Christophe Ena
By: Véronique Rigolet Follow
6 min
Political, the choice of the week returns to the tragic news that overwhelms the five-year term of Emmanuel Macron.The president is now on the front line to manage a triple crisis: health, economic and terrorist.
Publicity
"
What more could happen to us?"
A meteorite ?
Asked a minister, last week, in the wave of emotion that followed the assassination of Professor Paty.
The question, of course, was meant to be falsely naive.
The tragic response will not be long in coming.
The jihadist massacre in Nice on Thursday, October 29 threw down the already terribly anxiety-provoking climate of a France which had just been forced into new health confinement.
There you have it, Emmanuel Macron, whose five-year term has been constantly shaken by crises for three years: “yellow vests”, demonstrations linked to pension reform and the Covid - now on the front line to manage a triple crisis: health, economic and safe.
Rarely has a head of state had so many crises of such intensity to manage simultaneously.
And what is more, there is no real national political unity behind him.
"
The president is too lonely
" sliced a former right-wing minister "
his verticality is a real source of difficulty.
This had already been the case during the “yellow vests” crisis
”.
"
It is the nature of Emmanuel Macron
", recognizes a deputy of the majority thus joining the recriminations of the opposition, "
he does not like to share and he does not share
".
This lack of unity is an additional pressure on the long-awaited president, particularly in the management of the terrorist crisis.
While the French are asking for protection against the chain of Islamist attacks, several right-wing personalities are calling for the establishment of emergency laws to counter terrorism.
Even if it means calling into question the rule of law.
A real security escalation: the boss of the RN, Marine Le Pen, calls for "
war legislation
", the LR mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi "
a modification of the constitution
" to wage the war and his rival the deputy Éric Ciotti proposes to him "
a French Guantanamo
”.
While the president has promised to strengthen his bill on separatism, this pressure from the right constitutes a real political trap since the bill will not go beyond the framework of already existing law.
There will therefore be no emergency laws.
What to revive for the oppositions, the trial in powerlessness of the government at 18 months of the presidential election.
And while only 26% of French people, according to a recent survey, trust the government in the fight against terrorism.
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