Although struggling after losing his parliamentary majority, Macron’s will to shape Europe remains unwavering
The president of France Emmanuel Macron, like many of his compatriots, spends August on the beaches. Relaxing in a canoe, he was photographed on the Cote d’Azur near the presidential summer residence. But Macron, who was re-elected in the spring, continues to work even on vacation, as problems have piled up about 100 days into his second term. One of the centers of gravity in the politics of Macron, who started in 2017 as a new political star, remains the international and European chessboard. And yes, he had managed to claim the leading role in Europe from Angela Merkel, but how are things developing with the new German chancellor Olaf Scholz?
It is possible that the French Presidency in the EU in the first half of 2022 helped Macron to project himself as a mediator in the Ukraine crisis. In retrospect, however, it seems that it mobilized very slowly and hesitantly in the presidential elections in April and in the parliamentary elections in June – with serious consequences. With his opponent, the far-right Marine Le Pen, strengthened, he was re-elected by a narrower margin than expected and lost the absolute majority in parliament.
Now his camp is forced to carry out hard-fought government work against an opposition made up of both a new left-wing alliance and right-wing parties. Controversies over inflation and the energy crisis, the crisis in the health care system, deficiencies in the school system, climate change with drought and wildfires. Macron also wants to implement his controversial pension reform that has been postponed.
Mixed account
For most, the record of the president’s second term so far is mixed. Macron waited too long to appoint new Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and the new government. What’s more, the government’s future path is still unclear – and despite billions in measures to boost purchasing power, street protests are already on the horizon after the end of the summer season.
However, Macron does not seem to have given up his claim to be Europe’s shaper in his second term. He recently promoted the idea of a new “European political community” at the EU summit, which he said would include European partners from Ukraine to Iceland. After Chancellor Angela Merkel’s retirement from politics many expected Macron to take on the new leadership role in the EU. In fact, at least in public, he doesn’t seem to be setting the tone for Brussels at the moment.
But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz doesn’t seem convinced in that role either – although many see Germany as a star player, simply because of its size and economic power. Soltz, however, has never been the kind of politician to publicly support bold or creative ideas without securing enough support behind the scenes. Instead, he always stresses how important it is to coordinate within Europe, for example in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian candidacy
On one issue, in fact, neither Macron nor Solz took a leading role, but rather Poland and the Baltic states: Ukraine’s bid for EU membership. Then, in mid-June, Solz and Macron sent a powerful message by traveling to Kyiv with then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, thus paving the way for a historic decision to include Ukraine in the candidate countries.
If one compares the two leaders, Soltz is definitely more hesitant. Macron, for example, took advantage of the French presidency to set the European agenda to some extent. The final days of the French presidency have seen a number of issues clarified: Some progress has been made on asylum policy, on legislation to exchange electronic evidence that has been blocked for years, and EU states have agreed with Parliament on tougher security rules to protect critical infrastructure , such as cyber attacks and natural disasters.
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