The head of state, who is trying to make himself heard internationally, has just started his last year at the Élysée. The results will inevitably be mixed.
Is it ultimately his ability to create buzz that will allow Emmanuel Macron to remain politically alive until May 2027? Since his regained popularity thanks to a pair of sunglasses and a “for sure” pronounced with a good dose of French accent, the President seems to have gotten into the game. Not an outing abroad without a wink to seduce social networks : in Japan, he performed a kamehameha (reference to the manga Dragon Ball) with the Prime Minister. In Armenia, he covered Ma Boheme by Charles Aznavour accompanied on drums by the head of government.
In Africa, he was filmed during a jogging session with Kenyan marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge. But above all, during the same trip, he ignited the web by scolding the dissipated audience during a conference at the University of Nairobi. The President who wanted to fight against the influence of social networks finally became the star.
But this digital imprint is not the only trace that the head of state would like to leave after his departure. To do this, he is pushing certain national issues such as the ban on social networks for the youngest, even if the text studied by the Senate seems incompatible with European law. His plan for national service seems to be going better.
Dissolution the old way
At the same time, Emmanuel Macron wants to make an impact on international politics. But the rigidity of Vladimir Putin on the Ukrainian front and the hyperactivity of Donald Trump on the Iranian front leave him little room. He therefore tries to push his pawns into Asia or Africa, without much success. As for the European scene, it is too fragmented to be able to initiate large-scale projects.
What remains is his record, that of the ten years spent in power which will end in less than a year. The Élysée teams are still thinking about the form that its development should take.
The content is there. From Macronism, there will remain a DNA: at the same time. This desire to break down political divisions, to be neither right nor left, to combine the two. An excess which some welcome while others regret that it has contributed to feeding the extremes by weakening the democratic right and left.
The Élysée communications teams will also try to highlight the drop in unemployment, progress on the ecological front, initiatives aimed at reindustrializing the country, a commitment to Europe or the independence of France… But on all these subjects progress is largely questionable and the President’s former close friends do not hold back. Gabriel Attal, Élisabeth Borne and Bruno Le Maire compete in criticism, the latter pointing the finger at the increase in the deficit which will remain one of the markers of the Macron years.
These ten years will mainly remain crises: “yellow vests”, Covid, pensions… And small sentences thrown like volleys of green wood: “Refractory Gauls”, “I cross the street and I’ll find you a job”, “Those who are nothing”… Words which undoubtedly very quickly damaged the relationship between this young President and the French.
It is difficult to know today what history will remember. Undoubtedly the trace of a head of state who wanted to do politics differently and who got his feet caught in a dissolution that was ultimately very old school. For sure!
