‘President of the rich’ Macron shows that he’s a man with a gilt complex
‘Imay have given the impression that I did not care,” said the president sombrely, his hands placed in front of him on the mahogany desk next to a solid-gold sculpture of a cockerel, his face framed by the cream and gilt panelling of his palace’s “room of gold”.
After weeks of crippling riots in France, as many people tuned in to see Emmanuel Macron’s mea culpa as watched France’s World Cup win.
This was his moment to take back momentum and allay fears that he is the “president of the rich”. I’m not sure it has quite done the trick.
The extravagant surroundings were rather apt. In the course of 13 minutes, he spent an estimated £10 billion on a mix of tax cuts and tax credits to try to placate the rioters.
Les Echos, the daily, suggests this will take France’s deficit up to
3.5 per cent – smashing the euro’s 3 per cent cap and shattering Mr Macron’s credibility as the man who can reform France and, in doing so, save Europe.
It will not escape other governments’ notice that Italy, ruled by a coalition of anti-establishment Eurosceptics, is currently being hauled over the coals in Brussels for tabling a budget that it says would generate a 2 per cent deficit.
Of course, Rome’s estimate might not be accurate, but everyone knows the real reason the European Commission is angry is because Italy’s government does not pay lip service to the importance of the EU project and stirs up rage against Brussels and Germany. Mr Macron will presumably try to find ways of paying for his
As many tuned in to see his mea culpa as watched France’s World Cup win
giveaways. But given the resistance encountered already, it’s impossible to see how he can bring down France’s bloated public spending (55 per cent of GDP), cut its sky-high taxes, overhaul its welfare system and reduce poverty all at the same time.
As the president is fond of saying, often about Brexit, life involves trade-offs. The golden cock on your desk, for example? That might have to go.