Even in normal times French President Emmanuel Macron needed allies’ help governing France.
To get some things done he worked with the traditional right. The center-left helped the French president accomplish others. The challenge was bigger than any a French leader had faced in more than two decades: He had to convince politicians across the country’s national assembly to support even a minor domestic project.
Now, governing his alreadypolarized country has gotten close to impossible for Macron, because a suburban police officer stopped a yellow Class A Mercedes and fired one fatal shot into the 17-year-old driver’s chest, setting off six days of tumult across the country.
Photo: AP
Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and its close allies had merely 251 seats out of 577 after Macron won his second five-year term last year with 58 percent of the votes in a runoff with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Macron dreamed big, despite the close victory. His first big goal was raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, which he had to force through parliament. He then hoped to reindustrialize France, improve working conditions and finalize a new immigration bill. Abroad, Macron championed European sovereignty and independence in fields ranging from the economy and energy to defense.
However, all that has had to fall by the wayside.
Macron shortened a visit to a European summit in Brussels last week for a crisis meeting with his government. This week, he called a last-minute delay in a visit to Germany that had been meant to show the strength of the binationational friendship, despite disputes on energy, defense and the economy, among other issues.
The changes in his agenda echo another uncomfortable situation for the French leader three months ago, when the planned state visit of King Charles III to France was postponed due to violent protests against the pension changes.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was watching France’s situation with concern.
“I hope very much, and I am convinced, that the French president will find ways for this situation to improve quickly,” he told ARD television. “I don’t expect France to become unstable, even if the pictures are of course very depressing.”
The US, the UK and China were among those that called on citizens to exercise caution when traveling to France.
Last month, after a climate summit, Kenyan President William Ruto praised Macron’s deep involvement.
“You have run this like Kenyans do ... like a marathon,” he told Macron.
The question now for Macron is whether he can marshal enough endurance to face the political situation at home.
“The problem is that he still has four more years ahead,” said Luc Rouban, a senior researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
He said that Macron has faced a succession of protests and street unrest, starting with the “yellow vest” movement against social injustice that broke out in 2018.
An increasing proportion of the population “rejects institutions” as part of a broader criticism of “a social order that involves inequalities, that is ... basically quite hypocritical, with school in particular not allowing people to succeed as it once did,” Rouban said.
Schools, city halls, police stations and other public institutions have been attacked.
Macron “doesn’t have much leeway except for distributing subsidies,” which is also difficult because of France’s heavy debt burden, Rouban said.
Last month, Macron hosted the global summit on climate and finance that brought more than 50 heads of state and government and leaders of international organizations in the French capital, highlighting his international leadership.
Macron then traveled to Marseille last week to promote government efforts to inject billions into schools, housing and security, and improve lives of residents of low-income neighborhoods in France’s second-largest city.
Macron was to meet yesterday at the presidential palace with the mayors of more than 220 towns and cities that have been concerned by incidents and damages in recent days.
Le Pen appears to the one coming out of the situation in a stronger position, Rouban said.
She keeps positioning herself as the main political opposition to Macron, and continues her strategy of scrubbing the image of her far-right National Rally party, he said.
“These appalling events bring our leaders back to reality,” Le Pen said last week in a video posted on a social media account. “I intend to stick to our line of conduct, which is to do nothing to prevent or challenge the action of the legitimate authorities in charge of public order.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS