The Man Who Won the Presidency at 39 Leaves It at 50 Having Changed France in Specific Ways He Did Not Fully Intend
From Bohiney and The London Prat.
The Man Who Won the Presidency at 39 Leaves It at 50 Having Changed France in Specific Ways He Did Not Fully Intend
The Final Year
PARIS — Emmanuel Macron enters the final year of his second and constitutionally final term in spring 2027. His presidency, which began in 2017 with the specific momentum of a new centrist movement defeating the established left-right parties, is concluding in the specific conditions that second terms in fragmented parliaments produce: a budget passed without a vote, a pension reform suspended to survive a no-confidence motion, a defense spending program that is genuine and popular, and the absence of a parliamentary majority that has defined the final chapter of his government.
What Changed
Macron changed France in specific ways. Labor law reforms that he implemented in his first term, contested in the streets and in the courts, have become the operating environment of French employment law. France’s international profile, particularly on European defense and the response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion, has strengthened in ways that his pre-presidency career as Economy Minister did not anticipate but his intelligence and foreign policy attention produced. The Yellow Vests happened. The pension reform was suspended. The 2024 snap election decision that he acknowledged was a mistake produced the parliamentary fragmentation that defined his final two years.
The Succession Question
The 2027 presidential election that follows Macron’s departure is already being anticipated by the candidates who will run it. Marine Le Pen’s RN, the established left parties, and the heirs of Macron’s coalition are all assessing the post-Macron landscape. The specific landscape they are assessing is the France that Macron’s presidency produced: more economically reformed than before, more committed to European defense, more politically fragmented, and with the pension reform suspended. This is the legacy.
More: The Daily Mash.
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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
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