“I am a great admirer of Gérard Depardieu.” With these words, French President Emmanuel Macron came out in defense of the well-known actor on Wednesday, who has been denounced by three women for rape or sexual assault. The centrist leader not only vindicated the presumption of innocence – a fundamental principle of the judicial process – but compared it with a “witch hunt” the shower of criticism of the interpreter, in an interview on the France 5 network. Depardieu’s defense was so heated that many saw in it a maneuver on the part of Macron to divert attention, after the political crisis caused by the adoption this week of harsh immigration legislation in the National Assembly.
The approval on Tuesday around midnight of the Darmanin law (last name of the Minister of the Interior) was the icing on the cake of a really difficult year for Macron, perhaps the most complicated in domestic politics since he arrived at the Elysée in 2017. Although Macronism managed to carry out its most notable legislative initiative this fall, He paid a high price for it. In a serial parliamentary negotiationThe Republicans (LR, related to the PP)—with a radicalized immigration discourse—managed to impose numerous measures. And they turned a text that, at first, was already dominated by a restrictive and ‘security’ vision of immigration, into one of the toughest laws on this issue in France in recent decades.
Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau — and former chief of staff to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne — resigned on Wednesday in reaction to the controversial law, perceived by most French people as a “ideological victory” of the extreme right and that passed the parliamentary crossing thanks to the votes in favor of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. The one of Universities, Sylvie Retailleau, put his position at the disposal of the president, but he rejected his possible resignation. Three other ministers (Culture, Industry and Transport) from the less conservative wing of the Executive also threatened to resign, but it does not seem that they will go that far.
🔴 DIRECT 🗣️ – “Moi, I am a great admirer of Gérard Depardieu”, declared Emmanuel Macron, who is interrogated on the sexist proposals tenus par l’acteur.
👉 Ce n’est pas sur la basis d’un reportage qu’on lève une légion d’honneur”, insists Emmanuel Macron, soulignant who… pic.twitter.com/Cc1UuYW50P
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) December 20, 2023
A 2024 marked by the Olympic Games
“Macron, who knew the response from the street (yellow vests, pension reform…), is now answered in its own space. “This represents a turning point,” he said this week in Le Monde Solenn de Royer, journalist and analyst. Even 32 departments (equivalent to the provinces), governed by the left, warned that they will not apply some of the most controversial measures of the Darmanin law.
From the wave of union protests – the most massive in this 21st century in the neighboring country – against the unpopular pension reform in the first semester to the imbroglio over the immigration law, including the revolt in the “banlieues”; At the end of June due to the death of the teenager Nahel, Macron lived a year horribilis. Will it be able to take flight in 2024?
Next year will be marked in France by numerous commemorations or large ceremonies. June 6 will be commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. On July 26th there will be starting signal for the Olympic Gamess and Paralympics in Paris with a spectacular parade along the Seine River. And on December 8, Notre Dame Cathedral will reopen its doors, five and a half years after the great fire. A skilled orator, Macron feels comfortable in these types of events and hopes that they will serve to give greater cohesion and optimism to the French nation, which experienced a 2023 of information vertigo. But it is not clear that this will serve to turn around the current difficulties.
“The time has come for a great meeting with the nation”, Macron said at the beginning of December in statements to Le Monde. During his television interview this week on France 5, the president noted that this “great event” will take place in January. In a significant part of French public opinion, however, there is skepticism regarding these “big announcements.” The Elysée had already announced a similar initiative for the rentrée in September. But in the end this was limited to two meetings between the president and the heads of the main political parties, both the presidential coalition and the opposition.
The thermometer of the European elections
The centrist Executive plans to announce a law on the “death of dignity” in February. It could be a text that legalizes euthanasia or a less ambitious device on that issue. From the Elysée they point out that on those same dates Macron could give a speech on the European Union, which would serve as the starting signal for the negotiations. European elections on June 9. Although they are usually characterized by high abstention in France (between 40% and 60%), these elections will serve as a political thermometer. It will be the classic midterm vote.
The European elections, in fact, are predicted to be difficult for the Macronist coalition, made up of the Renaissance, MoDem and Horizons parties. According to the latest polls, which should be taken with a grain of salt, the president’s list would get 20% of the votes and Le Pen’s extreme right around 30%. These voting intentions reflect that Macronism has lost seven points compared to the first round of the presidential elections in the spring of 2022 – and three points compared to the European elections of 2019 – while Lepenism has risen seven.
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Macron “is making a common mistake in many other conservative governments. “He put immigration at the center of the legislative agenda to electorally stop the extreme right, but in reality he has obtained the opposite result,” political scientist Christophe Bouillaud explains to EL PERIÓDICO. According to this professor at Sciences Po Grenoble, “The current government cannot propose measures that satisfy the majority of French people.” —significant increases in salaries, improvement of public services…—, since he has no money” given the incipient return of austerity policies in the European Union, in addition to “its commitment to lowering taxes and not raising them for the highest incomes.”
After having managed the covid-19 pandemic with a certain pragmatism – and that helped him achieve his re-election in 2022 -, in 2023 the president has given the feeling of being his own main enemy. He has ended the year weakened due to his own laws (pension and immigration reform) that has been approved “whatever the cost.” And his ideological taboos seem to limit his range of responses to start a comeback in 2024.