Macron isn’t Dems’ progressive savior
As President Donald Trump has returned from his meeting with French President EmmanuelMacron, a number of Americans are sighing wistfully for the presidentwe don’t have. Macron’s American admirers see in him everything thatwe lack in Trump: The new president is young, attractive, concerned about the climate and possesses commanding power in parliament. In short, Macron represents what Democrats here have lost. The French dodged their bullet; we didn’t. Macron stemmed the nationalist tide sweeping across Europe and restored order to the freeworld reeling after Brexit and Trump. Or so the story goes.
WithMarine Le Pen’sNational Front as the only alternative in the French runoff earlier this year, Macronwas the right and necessary choice. Yet Americans should beware of developing too much of a love affair with France’s latest president: After all, Macron does not provide a truly progressive blueprint thatwe should or even could emulate here.
American liberals have been quick to embraceMacron. During France’s election, former President Barack Obama called and formally endorsed him. Painting this simply as an effort to stop Le Penwould be a half-truth: Obama reached out before the first round, where a more progressive candidate by the name of Jean-Luc Mélenchonwould go on to win the youngest segment of the voting population. Obamawas not opting for a lesser evil but an unabashed embrace of centrist politics. As political commentator Joy Ann Reid put it, “Macron found away to thread the needle between far right and far left populism/socialism. He’s culturally liberal but economically pragmatic.”
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, was another visible leader in the Democratic establishment who argued thatMacron provides a model for progressives here. Enthusiasm for him extended to the popular level. WhenMacron attended theG-7 Summit in lateMay, he ignited social media fan fiction over his “impossibly romantic first date” with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
At first, Macron’s liberal boosters seemed to be getting what they bargained for. Macron stood up against Trump, publicly airing his disagreement with him for pulling theUnited States out of the Paris climate accord while saying, “Make our planet great again.” Therewas his pre-emptive white-knuckled handshake with Trump which demonstrated firmness.
But look closer, and a much more complicated picture ofMacron’s politics emerges. To start, hewon the presidency with aweak mandate in an election in which over a third of French voters abstained or cast white ballots. His party EnMarche! won an overwhelming majority in parliament only amid record-low turnout. Thisweak mandate, coupled with his effort to push through controversial labor reforms without debate in parliament, does not sound deeply democratic.
Macron, who took Trump toNapoleon Bonaparte’s tomb, has himself earned comparisons to the French emperor, something he doesn’t entirely seem to mind: He has previously said that France needs a king and Jupiter-like president. Macron has also given other offensive and sometimes utterly bizarre commentary. When hewas recently asked if Africawould implement aMarshall Plan for Africa, he described Africa’s economic problems as “civilizational.” After the president skipped the traditional BastilleDay news conference, an administration source explained thatMacron’s “complex thought process” didn’t lend itself to interviews with journalists.
Macron has emphasized tax cuts for businesses and limits on public spending. When the new French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe spoke to FT andwas told that thesewere right-wing measures, Phillippe allegedly burst into laughter and responded, “Yes, what did you expect?” Macron has made a concerted effort to lure capital to France, particularly bankers leery of Brexit. WhenMacron speaks of revolutionizing and transforming France, in sounds more like a Silicon Valley-style neoliberalization than pro-worker reform that might benefit the poor andworking class. Americans, at the very least, should knowthat this has not been to solution to the plight ofworkers.
It is unclear whetherMacron’s policies will bury the nationalist xenophobic current feeding on economic discontent or further it. Nevertheless, Democrats here should not look to him as the progressive model to emulate here. The Democratic establishment’s attraction toMacron is fueled by nostalgia for a bygone era. Lacking a successor to Obama, it is as if some nowlook toMacron to imagine an uninterrupted order in which the center is stable, and nothing has changed. But that world is gone now, and dreaming of Francewon’t bring it back.
Daniel José Camacho is a contributing opinion writer at the GuardianU.S. writing about politics and religion.