by
Philippe Marlière
The
gambit is a well-known opening move in the chess game. The player
makes a sacrifice, typically a pawn, for the sake of a compensating
advantage. Emmanuel Macron metaphorically did that in the first six
months of his presidency. In the run-up to the presidential election,
the political neophyte introduced himself as neither left-wing nor
right-wing, but rather as left-wing and right-wing. It was a bold
attempt to supersede the deeply entrenched left-right divide in
French politics, and to take from both camps “what works best.”
In so doing, Macron was able, for a short period of time, to defy
political gravity and position himself as an ideal centrist
candidate.
What’s
more, the 39-year old candidate was untested politically, a young
bright figure with a liberal profile and background. In this respect,
Macron likes to remind everyone that he was once the editorial
assistant to renowned French philosopher Paul Ricoeur. Indeed, Macron
is keen to be seen as the first “intellectual president” since
François Mitterrand.
If
Macron was a breath of fresh air in the run-up to the election, his
political honeymoon with the voters did not last long. His first
actions in power have marked the end of an original realignment of
French politics. His economic policy blatantly leans to the right and
is of a neoliberal nature. Both sides say so. Les Républicains, the
party launched by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, has been
remarkably silent since the start of the Macron presidency. They are
unable to mount any significant challenge because, as some
Republicans privately argue, Macron has stolen most of their
policies. In short, they have virtually nothing to oppose and nowhere
to go.
For
political observers of French politics, Macron’s shift to the right
was no major surprise. Backed by a strong 60-seat majority in the
National Assembly, Macron had made no secret that, should he be
elected, he would dramatically reshape France’s labour market.
While running for president, Macron said that France needed “a
shock of trust, a real acceleration.” He has all the
constitutional power to pass any legislation he wishes to put
forward. From a constitutional point of view, the French president,
even called a “republican Monarch,” is the most powerful of any
Western democracy (including the U.S).
The
reform of the French Labour Code (Code du Travail) was hastily passed
in September. Macron’s reform goes much further than the El Khomri
voted by the Socialist government in 2016. While the French labour
market had been traditionally protective of workers’ rights, the
new law has dramatically shifted the power into the employers’ and
business’ hands.
The
French president chose a rather controversial way to push through the
labour reform: he asked the deputies of his party, La République En
Marche, which controls the National Assembly, to give the government
the right to pass rulings, instead of letting the parliament debate
and vote legislation. Macron wanted to reform the Labour Code quickly
and decisively. Given the depth and importance of the reforms, his
critics have argued that Macron showed contempt for parliamentary
representation on this occasion.
Macron
promised that the reforms would bring more freedom and more equality
of opportunity for employees and job seekers. The issue is that a
majority of workers saw these measures as market deregulation, rather
than market modernization. Some of the more controversial measures
include: the role of industrial tribunals being largely reduced; the
number of working days paid after a lay-off being cut down; and the
issues that were previously set by the law, such as contract details,
being now negotiable within the company. Negotiations with employers
would also be possible without the presence of a union.
And yet,
Macron implemented this flagship reform without encountering any
significant opposition: The Front National has been mute following
Marine Le Pen’s disastrous second round of the presidential
election. The Republicans have been in crisis since François
Fillon’s abysmal result in the first round of the same election.
The Socialists are leaderless, have no program, are losing members
and officials in droves, and are still wondering whether they should
oppose Macron’s policy.
Jean-Luc
Mélenchon, the self-appointed main opponent to Macron, has indeed
been a more robust opponent. A former socialist official. Mélenchon
created a new movement called La France Insoumise (Unbowed France).
The leftist Mélenchon has given up on the notions of socialism or
the left. In true populist fashion, his aim is to “federate the
people” against an “oligarchy” in order to recapture a “lost
[political and economic] sovereignty.” Mélenchon has called
Macron’s labour law reforms a “social coup d’état” and
organized several street protests against the law, which failed to
mobilise. Furthermore, Mélenchon’s tactical disagreements with the
unions further demoralized protesters. The left was easily defeated
and Macron won the first round of his battle after a successful
Blitzkrieg.
Macron
is also pushing through severe public service cuts, such as 150,000
government-subsidized fixed-term contract jobs in schools. Macron’s
economic agenda is increasingly regarded as a Thatcherite-style
attack on social rights in France. This is his political gambit: he
has no major opponent to his right and to his center-left. He
therefore remains convinced that he occupies a central and pivotal
position in a fast-changing political landscape. On this count, he
seems to be right. Despite a temporary slump in popularity following
the passing his labour law reforms, he largely dominates French
politics.
The
labour law reform may be largely responsible for breaking the spell
with the public, at least with moderate center-left voters. But there
is more to it than economics. After all, there may still be
significant cross-party support for his neoliberal agenda. People are
also taken aback by Macron’s oratory style and his obvious “class
contempt.” He, above all, seems to display no empathy for the
worst-off. His comments on his political opponents often sound
patronizing, if not scornful. In early September, days before a
union-led protest against his overhaul of labour laws, the French
president said in a speech that he would not back down “to
slackers, cynics, and extremists.”
Critics
have called him a “powdered marquis, a megalomaniac with royal
pretensions, a rich man’s president or a communicator without a
cause.” Macron could not care less. He has retreated into the
Élysée Palace, and tightened presidential communication. Unlike
Sarkozy and Hollande, who commented on day-to-day affairs, Macron
stands back and intervenes little. He thinks that power is best
exercised when wrapped in a cloud of mystery. Aloof and haughty,
Macron has labelled his presidency “Jupetarian”—a formal and
strong presidency with all the pomp of the 5th Republic à la de
Gaulle or Mitterrand.
Macron
has not been particularly liberal from a political or cultural
viewpoint. The government’s treatment of migrants and refugees is
as harsh and heavy-handed as the previous government. So far, he has
stayed away from the main controversies on national identity, which
inevitably revolve around Muslims. Racial tensions run high in
France, and the country could do with a more inclusive and
multicultural approach to the question of citizenship. On Europe, he
has sought to position himself as the leader who can fix the European
Union’s political and economic crisis, but he gave few details on
how he is going to do so.
Macron
is no doubt the new strong man of French politics. His embrace of the
political center ground, followed by a shift to the neoliberal right,
has disarmed the center-left and the conservative right. However, the
young president should bear in mind that his position of strength
derives not so much of his actions, but rather of the weakness of his
opponents.
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