EMMANUEL MACRON: A Man For Various Seasons.
By Paul Merkley.
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Recent European National Politics.
Just recently, European national politics has come to be dominated by novices – men who had little political experience before being swept into top office by a bedazzled electorate.
(In fact, we could broaden that canvas to include Donald Trump, elected President of the USA in 2016 while never having held public office — but that’s a subject for another time.)
The most significant of the factors behind this phenomenon is, of course, the magic of national and international news-media and general entertainment media, working in tandem to produce instant fame – thus short-circuiting processes which until recently normally required years and even decades.
In Western Europe, the sudden celebrity of national politicians is linked to another phenomenon — the abrupt appearance of brand-new political parties, led by new and untested political personalities. This story has played out within the last few years in Spain, in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Western Europe. With little notice, these new parties have in just the last two or three years bounced out of government the long-established political parties (generally described as ‘centrist” by their supporters and “elitist” by their enemies) which have dominated governments of Western Europe since the end of the Second World War.
Typical of these recent political whirlwind romances is the story of the movement called Us with Salvini, which sprung up suddenly in Italy as a poplar response to the out-of-control immigration of Syrians and other Arab-Muslims, tolerated by an Italian government that was founded on older “centrist” parties. Supporters of Salvini’s party, like supporters of like-minded “populist” movements in the Netherlands, in Spain and elsewhere, have come to sudden notoriety on account of their hard-boiled stand against illegal immigration and against the attitudes towards this reality that have characterised national media and elitist opinion generally. Salvini’s party, in cooperation with a sister party, Lega Nord, participated in the June, 2018 general election, gaining enough seats to qualify the party for partnership in the government and to qualify Matteo himself to take the job of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior.
Recent French National Politics: The Meteoric Career of Emmanuel Macron.
Definitely belonging to this broader European story has been the sudden rise to the Presidency of France of Emmanuel Macron. Significantly before Macron the youngest French head of state had been Napoleon—who virtually blasted his way to power. We live in a gentler age: the same numbing effect that Napoleon achieved over the French mind was accomplished almost overnight on behalf of Emmanuel Macron by means of quiet, well-organized journalistic propaganda campaign.
But today, as I write (January 9, 2018), President Macron is well into the third month of massive civilian protests against what the French public perceives as his indifference to their daily struggles, his attachment to the interests of the rich and powerful, as the economy sinks further each month The “yellow vest” (gilets jaunes) movement began at the end of November as a grassroots rebellion against taxes on diesel fuel and the high cost of living. It opened with the blocking of roads, occupying highway tollbooths and the rush of citizens from the countryside into Paris.
Understandably, given the duration of the protest, the numbers participating have declined. But those who remain to thrust themselves to the front ranks have begun orchestrating ever more violent provocations. At one point they brought a forklift truck to the doors of a government ministry compound, torched cars on and around the Champs Elysees, and managed at one location to kick riot police officers to the ground. Last Sunday, Macron wrote on Twitter: “Once again, the Republic was attacked with extreme violence – its guardians, its representatives, its symbols.”
The number of active demonstrators began tending downwards early in the New Year. But the police have begun responding with greater severity, and it is not clear which side has the public’s sympathy for now. Retail sales have been ravaged, as fear has kept the public away from some of the most prestigious centres of commerce. (See, Helene Fouquet, “The Miseducation of Emmanuel Macron: Stunned by December’s vehement protests, France’s president takes refuge in the past,” December 20, 2018 )
These protests take their name from the yellow vests all French drivers are required to keep in their cars in the event of an emergency on the road. There’s a paradox! The government, by mandating this item for inclusion in in everyman’s automobile, has been laying-by the uniform for the greatest mass-movement of the French people’s resistance against itself since end of world war Two!
Arguably, absolutely everything in France needs fixing. The national debt is close to 100 percent of gross domestic product, and interest payments cost €42 billion this year alone . (“Emmanuel Macron calls for order after ‘yellow vest’ attack on police,” December 23, 2018, Agence France-Presse.)
Beyond doubt, President Macron has been cut down several pegs, and is beginning to look more and more like President de Gaulle, the wartime hero of the “Resistance”—who posed successfully as an inflexible pillar of strength – until he abruptly turned away in disgust and resigned after losing a referendum in 1969
We know that Emmanuel Macron is not a man for all seasons—not a man of steady convictions. He has proved inconstant (to put it mildly) in matters of political loyalty—having started public life as a Socialist. Likewise, in the matter of religion. As a teenager, he sought and received baptism as a Roman Catholic, against the protests of his parents — usually a decision that requires some steadfastness in this post-Christian age. But later he confessed that he was not so sure about that any more.. He explained much later that he was then “at “the start of a mystical period that lasted for a few years,” until he turned agnostic and left the Church. Then, prior to meeting Pope Francis in June of 2018, Macron told the world that he was an agnostic.
Asked last year whether he believed in God, he would divulge only that “I believe in a form of transcendence, that’s why I thoroughly respect the role of religions in society” – which has the stamp of a declaration of faith composed by UNESCO. (“Meeting with Pope puts Macron’s religious views in spotlight,”. The Local. 25 June 2018 (via Wikipedia.)
It would be foolish to imagine that such a man has the steadfastness to lead France, let alone “the Free World,” through its the present global crisis of confidence
The Case for the cursus honorum
While it is clear that modern media have made possible instant fame, they have also contributed to the illusion that fame is the same thing as accomplishment.
The politics of the Western world stands in need of many things, but possibly what it needs most is resuscitation of the ancient Roman concept of cursus honorum—the principle that people should not move on to the highest offices until they have proved themselves, and grown a few years older, in a sequence of lesser offices.
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