Presidential 2022: Can Emmanuel Macron really capitalize on Europe?
Audio 03:12
French President Emmanuel Macron, at the European Council, in Brussels, in December 2020 © AP - John Thys
By: Anthony Lattier Follow
7 mins
On January 1, 2022, France will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union for six months.
Emmanuel Macron hopes to make it a launching pad for his campaign for the presidential election which will take place in a year.
But will he really be able to profit politically from this sequence?
Publicity
It has been a long time since Emmanuel Macron checked this date on his calendar.
He is convinced that he can take advantage of this rotating presidency of the European Union which, coincidentally, will fall in the midst of the campaign for his re-election.
Macron, President of France and at the same President of Europe, an obvious asset in the face of his opponents, a platform offered on a plate, as during a speech on January 19, 2022 in front of the European Parliament where he will be able to unfold his vision and its avenues for reform.
Re-mobilize pro-Europeans
For Emmanuel Macron, it is a boon in the context of his campaign because his pro-European fight is one of his strengths.
Opinion polls show it: it is a well-identified political marker which differentiates it from its opponents.
This is an opportunity to "re-
mobilize its support, and beyond unifying all the pro-Europeans behind the President
", explains one of its strategists.
The idea would be to seek voters - especially on the left - who have turned away from the Head of State but who recognize his voluntarism on the European scene.
To achieve this goal, an association entitled "
for a European renaissance
" has just been created.
It will act - in parallel with the presidential party - to mobilize activists and conduct campaigns and publicize the results and proposals of Emmanuel Macron.
Present results
But to capitalize on this presidency, the Head of State will also have to present concrete results to the French.
This is why the Minister for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, is working on reform proposals.
In particular, he would like to relax the rules of the stability pact which sets limits on deficits and indebtedness and which was rendered obsolete by the health crisis.
Another close friend of Emmanuel Macron, MEP Stéphane Séjourné is working to ensure that reforms lead to the European Parliament in the first half of 2022, such as the one on the fight against online hatred, again with the aim of proving that Europe advanced.
On the defensive
The plan on paper is already well sketched. But does Emmanuel Macron not base too much hope on this European presidency? There are several reasons for caution. First, because European issues weigh much less than others in the choice of voters when they slip their ballot into the ballot box, even if we saw during the last presidential election that the question of withdrawal or no euro had played an important role in the defeat of the president of the National Rally Marine Le Pen. Then, because obtaining concrete results in a few months of presidency is uncertain, the European negotiations being able to last longer than expected.
Finally, because politically, it will be difficult to seduce the French on a pro-European discourse when, since the start of the pandemic, the European Union has suffered major setbacks. Its ignition delay in vaccine orders has resulted in unflattering comparisons with vaccine campaigns in the United States or Britain. Emmanuel Macron recognized this on March 24, stressing that the EU had "
lacked ambition
". This puts the head of state, labeled pro-European, on the defensive. Those close to the president recognize his difficulties, one of them says he is “
lucid
” about the fact that this French presidency will only be “
one dimension among others of his campaign
”.
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