Macron’s outbursts seen as attempt to paint himself as EU’s ‘undisputed leader in crisis’
EMMANUEL MACRON’S angry outbursts over the past week are seen by those who know him as an attempt to position himself as the saviour of the European Union and the only man capable of winning a pro-European election campaign.
Mr Macron’s condemnation of the “not serious” government of Boris Johnson, and Paris’s subsequent exclusion of Priti Patel from an EU meeting on migration took Westminster aback and left many wondering if this was a new trough in Franco-British relations. His swipe at Mr Johnson’s tweeting – a somewhat un-Gallic activity – and claims that the Prime Minister was seeking to “politically exploit” the deaths of 27 migrants was seen as unusual given that Britain-bashing is unlikely to be a vote-winner in the French presidential elections.
“It was a bit weird as there is no big anti-British constituency in France,” said Joseph de Weck, author of the Macron biography The Revolutionary President. “There’s a big anti-German constituency. There is anti-American sentiment too, with talk about France being the vassal of Nato. But there is no electorate that Macron can cater to with that kind of anti-British talk”.
For a better glimpse at Mr Macron’s thought process you have to go back to his election in 2017, which was won on a pro-European platform, says Mr de Weck. “His election happened against a backdrop of Trump and Brexit. For the EU it was an existential crisis.
“Populists were on the rise and France has always had an ambiguous relationship with the EU. His victory gave the EU a new lease of life.”
Macron’s victory was lauded in Der Spiegel as having “stabilised” the EU, and Mr Macron’s support, upport, principally among pro-European liberals, has stood solid at around 24 or 25 per cent ever ver since.
While a minority, y, this could be enough to get Mr Macron into the second round in April’s pril’s elections.
Falling out with Britain over both the migrants and fishing licences is in this light simply an attempt to draw other EU nations and a show Mr Macron as the bloc’s undisputed und leader in times of crisis.
In the fishing row, Paris has applied as much muc pressure in Brussels as in London. Lo “Bilaterally with the UK, Macron doesn’t have enough en leverage”, says de d Weck. “That’s why he h wants it to be a European Eu issue”.
By B standing up for fishermen, fish Mr Macron will wil also head off any accusations accu during the election campaign c that he is not willing to defend France’s interests, says Pierre-Emmanuel Thomann, lecturer on politics and director of the Eurocontinent think tank.
“His opponents will say ‘Look at the UK, it’s now a sovereign nation and can do what it wants’. As the symbolic pro-European and believer in open borders, Macron will have to show that the EU is still working”.
All the more so given that the election campaign will fall during France’s six-month presidency of the EU. The lead-up to the elections has until now been dominated by security and immigration. Other than the
‘I think this is all a communications stunt by Macron’
fishing spat, Mr Macron’s Britainbashing has hardly featured in the French press.
“I think this is all a communications stunt by Macron,” said Mr Thomann.
Cross-Channel relations will probably stay fragile until after April’s elections, after which the two sides will kiss and make up, says de Weck.
France and the UK have a lot in common; they are the only military powers in Europe that are capable of playing a role on an international stage. “The row with the UK is costing more political capital in the EU than on the other side [in the UK]”, he says.