President Emmanuel Macron, once the wunderkind of globalism, has become one of France’s most deeply unpopular leaders. Nevertheless, he continues to advance globalist projects like an expanding European Union, recently telling British Prime Minister Andy Burnham “welcome back” after he expressed his openness to reversing Brexit. Macron even claimed Brexit was “the biggest lie of the last 30 years.”
Ironically, Macron is presenting European integration for Britain at a time when not only is the European project failing, but his own country is descending into chaos. French polling shows he is historically unpopular, with just 16 percent of the French favorable to him. So how did the face of globalism become one of the most hated leaders in the world?
Making of Macron: The Insider Presented as an Outsider.
Following his graduation in 2004 from France’s elite École Nationale d’Administration, Macron took a job in France’s vast civil service at the Inspectorate General of Finance, where he spent four years before joining the investment banking industry, where he worked for the powerful Rothschild & Cie Banque in 2008. Within the span of just two years, he became a managing partner of the firm and, between 2008 and 2012, helped carry out important deals worth billions of euros with global corporations like Nestlé.
Macron left banking in 2012, transitioning into politics by serving in the deeply unpopular socialist President Francois Hollande’s government as deputy secretary-general and then as economy minister from 2014 to 2016. Hollande was the most unpopular French president of the Fifth Republic, leaving office with a four percent approval rating.
Despite his ties to the unpopular Hollande regime, Macron distanced himself by creating a new movement ahead of the 2017 presidential elections, called En Marche! (“On the Move”) and presenting himself as somewhat of a political outsider. He made it clear that he believes in globalism, European integration, and technocratic government. He decisively defeated populist then-Front National presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, 66.06 percent to 33.94 percent, after the establishment rallied around him following the collapse of old parties like the Socialists and the notionally conservative Les Républicains.
First Term: Jupiter Comes Back to Earth.
Upon taking power, Macron began presenting himself as a semi-monarchical president, going as far as to call himself “Jupiter” after the king of the Roman gods, and declaring that his mind was so complex that journalists could not understand it. The “Jupiterian” style of governing was meant to reflect a strong presidency and a president unafraid to use the broad executive power of the French presidential office, while limiting his interactions with the press and other political figures to remain “above” them.
Coupled with a majority in the legislature, Macron set out to make reforms to France’s labor regulations, abolish the wealth tax on financial assets, and cut housing benefits. He also championed greater “European integration,” meaning the surrender of more national sovereignty to European Union agencies.
The wind appeared to be at Macron’s back in the early days of his presidency, with a lack of any serious, organized political opposition. However, this lasted only a little over a year, when November of 2018 changed everything.
A tax on fuel was the catalyst for one of the longest-lived protests in modern French history. The Gilets Jaunes, or “Yellow Vests,” were a spontaneous movement of regular people across the political spectrum who were fed up with cost-of-living increases in the country. The fuel tax especially hurt those living in rural areas and small French towns, as they relied on fuel to work and travel.