Macron, the epic pragmatist
Lauren Collins portrays Emmanuel Macron in a newly published New Yorker profile as hard-charging, confrontational, brilliant and pretentious.
Why it matters: Macron says recent EU elections — in which Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally narrowly beat his liberal En Marche party — show his battle with political “extremists” is unfinished.
- Battered by mass protests and mocked as “president of the rich,” Macron in recent months went on a national listening tour (“people wasted the President’s time because they could,” Collins writes) and emerged promising “to put man at the heart of our project.”
- He conceded to Collins that his designs for France had “probably” been “too abstract.” She fills in the blanks: “At times, it can feel like a group of extremely smart and annoying interns is running the country.”
- Now, he’s ready to “be as pragmatic as the extremists are,” adding: “This is a battle. And, even if you die with good principles, you die.”
What to watch: Macron has portrayed himself as a revolutionary at home and a valiant defender of multilateralism and liberal values abroad. He clearly sees himself in epic terms. But nearly halfway through his term, less than one-third of the public approves of him.
- “If it succeeds, it could be the beginning of a renewal of French democracy; if it fails, it will have been an interregnum before the era of Le Pen and her brand of far-right populism,” Collins writes.
Πηγή: axios.com
