It is a pity that we have no idea what will be written about the leading politicians of the times in which we live a hundred years from now. In the case of Emmanuel Macron, that is even more unfortunate. You can already see that this French president will claim more space in the history books of 2122 than many predecessors.
Anyone who believes that fate will favor Europe in general, and France in particular, can foresee that Chapter 3 in The EU in the 21st century will bear the title ‘The Miracle Macron’. In 2017, with Emmanuel Macron then just 39, France finally got the president it had needed for so long. A combination of youthful energy, courage, and cunning, he accomplished the oh-so-tough job that his predecessors had bitten their teeth on: bringing this glorious nation-state of yesteryear into the 21st century.
“Typical of Macron was his ability to see things clearly and yet to chart a course of his own. Psychologists saw a blueprint for his success in the originality of his mate choice. At the age of 15, he fell in love with his dramaturgy teacher Brigitte Trogneux, who was 24 years his senior. His surroundings were furious, but he persevered and reached the top with her. That love affair turned out to be training for dealing with political resistance. He was barely president when the yellow vests were already in Paris.
‘Political nostalgia blossomed in those years like never before. Marine Le Pen on the right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the left lured voters with romanticized versions of 1960s France. But a born visionary, Macron could see through these reactionary politicians. No matter what such adversaries tried, they could not turn back the clock sixty years. It required art and flying work. Blood Sweat and tears. But at the end of Macron’s presidency in 2027, France was a more efficient, competitive, greener, more tolerant and more modest country. Without what is now called macronization, the EU might not have survived.’
Those less optimistic may fear that Chapter 3 of The EU in the 21st century ‘Macron en malheur’ will be called. ‘In his novel Immortality sighs Milan Kundera, Czech exile in Paris, ‘O France, old, old country!’ Kundera doesn’t mean that flatly. He sees a country that is not only top-heavy from the past, but also too attached to its old self to really change. The last French president to harbor the illusion that he could bring this unwieldy, nostalgic country into the 21st century was Emmanuel Macron (1977-2076).
He came to power unexpectedly in 2017 because of the unpopularity and scandal of the Gaullist and Socialist candidates. His tragedy was that his boundless energy and wealth of ideas did not translate into major policy successes. Sometimes it even seemed as if he was getting less done with extra effort. The similarity between his intensive efforts to reform the French pension system and to avoid war in Ukraine was that they were fruitless. He did not owe his reelection in April 2022 to his popularity, but to the fear of the far right.
The June 2022 parliamentary elections finally sealed his political fate: he was then doomed to compromise with exactly those he wanted to sideline. In the presidential election of 2027, what had become inevitable happened. But until his death at the age of 99 in 2076, Macron remained with his think tank La nouvelle France tirelessly launching plans for a new France.’
What do you think?