The Twilight of Emmanuel Macron

Guillaume de Thieulloy surveys the events conspiring to threaten France’s liberal order

France and Europe are facing an uncertain autumn. Already, earlier this summer, the parliamentary election in France delivered a surprising blow to President Emmanuel Macron. After Macron handily won a second term, many observers expected a huge show of support for Macron’s candidates. Parliamentary elections are usually a few weeks after the presidential one and, in France’s highly “presidential” system, follow (or amplify) the result of the latter.

There were a lot of good reasons to think that this would be the case. The presidential campaign had been quite a “classic” one, despite the rise of the conservative journalist Eric Zemmour and of the far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In spite of those challengers, the second round brought, just as five years earlier, a battle between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. Macron won just as easily as expected. It would have been logical to observe a “classical” parliamentary election, as well.

Instead the result was unexpected.