Since Friedrich Sieburg's “God in France?” The image of a lovable, but premodern, even reform-resistant country has kept in the reporting about the neighbor on the other side of the Rhine. The turbulent years of the Macron era seem to fit into this pattern of perception. The “unruly Gauls”, about whom the young president complained during a visit to cool, Protestant Denmark, put on yellow safety vests and rehearsed the uprising for weeks. The grudges haven't gone away with the pandemic. But not only the prejudice of somehow backward, recalcitrant France was served by yellow rage in the Macron era. The president's sense of mission promoted the prevailing reading in Germany,that there is an economically decadent country with great European and global political ambitions. With the Sorbonne speech, Macron ignited a firework of ideas that overwhelmed and at the same time disturbed. It takes intimate knowledge of the country to dissolve the two stereotypes of France or - to quote Macron - “deconstruct” them. The 35-year-old historian Joseph de Weck succeeds in doing this very well in his first work on “Emmanuel Macron. The revolutionary president ”. The title refers to Macron's campaign book “Revolution”. It is so far the only work that the 8th President of the Fifth Republic has published and is available in a translation in German (Morstadt Verlag) that could be improved in some cases.the overwhelmed and at the same time disturbed. It takes intimate knowledge of the country to dissolve the two stereotypes of France or - to quote Macron - “deconstruct” them. The 35-year-old historian Joseph de Weck succeeds in doing this very well in his first work on “Emmanuel Macron. The revolutionary president ”. The title refers to Macron's campaign book “Revolution”. It is so far the only work that the 8th President of the Fifth Republic has published and is available in a translation in German (Morstadt Verlag) that could be improved in some cases.the overwhelmed and at the same time disturbed. It takes intimate knowledge of the country to dissolve the two stereotypes of France or - to quote Macron - “deconstruct” them. The 35-year-old historian Joseph de Weck succeeds in doing this very well in his first work on “Emmanuel Macron. The revolutionary president ”. The title refers to Macron's campaign book “Revolution”. It is so far the only work that the 8th President of the Fifth Republic has published and is available in a translation in German (Morstadt Verlag) that could be improved in some cases.The revolutionary president ”. The title refers to Macron's campaign book “Revolution”. It is so far the only work that the 8th President of the Fifth Republic has published and is available in a translation in German (Morstadt Verlag) that could be improved in some cases.The revolutionary president ”. The title refers to Macron's campaign book “Revolution”. It is so far the only work that the 8th President of the Fifth Republic has published and is available in a translation in German (Morstadt Verlag) that could be improved in some cases.
Michaela Wiegel
Political correspondent based in Paris.
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De Weck's merit lies in the fact that he does not generally interpret Macron's revolutionary claim as French arrogance, but rather explains exactly why France ascribed itself a universalist mission in the turmoil of the revolution, which is still having an impact today.
At that time the narrative was used to assert oneself against the concentrated power of the European monarchies, which were striving for a restoration.
Today France needs a self-narrative again that makes it believe in its role in Europe and in itself.
De Weck quoted Napoleon right at the beginning: “The French want to be governed by dreams.” Macron, the optimist, assigned himself this task.
The biographical thread in the book is in part negligently researched, for example when de Weck insinuates Macron that he did not pass the entrance examination to the elite administration college Ena straight away or that he met the philosopher Paul Ricœur while studying at the University of Nanterre. Rather, the author excels at analyzing the French crises and moods of recent years. He outlines a complex moral picture of France. Macron is the fixed point from which de Weck has to distance himself again and again in order to see clearly.