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Nowadays, few people are ready to defend the idea of globalization. French President Emmanuel Macron offers his leadership, but it is not clear that he can keep his promises. This is why the self-proclaimed solitary champion of globalism seems to want to become even more lonely:
Problem at home
Since taking office in the spring of 2017, Macron's popularity has steadily declined among French voters – it currently has approval ratings from the 1920s (other pollsters do it even less than that). Several factors contributed to his fall from political grace – there was the Benalla scandal, where his bodyguard beat a May 1 protester; He was then filmed by filming an unemployed person that he could easily find work by "crossing the street" to a nearby café or restaurant.
Both incidents fuel the story that Macron, a former investment banker, is a man disconnected from the French. It is an accusation that has more weight as it tried to reform the country's labor code in favor of the business world, thus putting it at odds with the country's all-powerful unions. The country's overall economic growth is slow and the unemployment rate remains north at 9%, about the level it was when it took office.
In fact, the only people who seem to be giving up their jobs these days are Macron's own ministers, three of whom have already resigned from his government. According to rumors, Macron was considering a cabinet reshuffle this week … but he had to postpone the year because of the shortage of qualified candidates willing to hold a position in his administration. It's hard to be an effective globalist on the world stage when you struggle to stay politically relevant at home.
The Iranian problem
And then we went to geopolitics. Macron is a strong supporter of the Iran nuclear deal and, along with German and British leaders, Russia and China, is looking for ways to keep the deal in place following the US decision abandon the agreement and reimpose the sanctions. It was still going to be a difficult battle given the strength and scope of US sanctions (which have already helped to reduce the value of the Iranian currency by around 70% this year).
But this mission was further complicated by the recent revelation that Tehran had attempted to stage a bomb attack against Iranian opponents of the Khamenei regime during a rally in Paris last summer. Last week again, the French authorities formally concluded that the plot had been ordered by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. It is difficult enough to maintain a globalist vision when your country is the target of foreign terrorism, but it is particularly difficult when some of these terrorist acts are ordered by a country in which you diplomatically ventured to help.
Being dragged into the mess of Syria
There is no shortage of confusion about the world's most active geopolitical hotspot, especially as Syria enters its eighth year of civil war, more accurately portrayed as a low-intensity world war, given the fact that that Syrians, Russians, Turks and Kurds Iranians, Saudis and Americans (among others) are all involved in the conflict in one form or another.
France has participated in the fight against the Islamic State since at least 2014, but has only participated in air strikes against the Assad forces as part of a limited strike against the United States and the United Kingdom in response to the use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces. Getting away from an active war zone with too many players already in the group seemed like a good idea … until Russia recently accused a French frigate of firing missiles in Syria while a Russian plane was shot down over Syria. Russia subsequently withdrew its charges, finding that the plane had been shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft weapons aimed at an Israeli fighter, but Russian media continued to question the role of France in this incident.
Keeping your hands clean in such a messy situation is almost impossible. But it is particularly difficult for someone who asserts himself to be above the geopolitical fray of defending globalism in the 21st century.
A Chinese kidnapping
Then come one of the most surprising events of 2018. During a trip to China last week, the Chinese authorities arrested Meng Hongwei, president of the French company Interpol, also vice-minister of China. Public Safety (at least until last week). When Meng was elected to the head of Interpol in 2016 for a four-year term, this was seen as a major success for a country that legitimately aspires to world leadership. But since then, there have been signs of confusion between Meng and Beijing, and he has been targeted in China's massive anti-corruption campaign, which Chinese President Xi Jinping has used to effectively consolidate political power.
What does all this have to do with France and Macron? This is not clear. But since Interpol is based in Lyon, it is the French authorities who are investigating the case after Meng's wife contacted her about the disappearance of her husband. More importantly, Interpol is a major multilateral institution that is integral to Macron's global worldview. Will Macron take Meng's defense at the head of this organization or will he let Beijing treat this case as an internal affair? Until where does he want to push Franco-Sino relations to Meng's treatment? These are thorny questions for a president who is trying to balance his leadership in France with his (still ambitious) leadership of the free world.
Few important friends
He feels alone at the top of the table of globalism and he just feels lonely. Macron's closest ally in the globalist cause, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is a political duck. The rising political star of Europe is Matteo Salvini, Italian Minister of the Interior Anti-Migrants, who has just teamed up with Steve Bannon to launch a far-right nationalist movement across l & # 39; Europe. Countries in Eastern Europe, such as Poland and Hungary, are forcing Brussels to cope with growing illiberalism in the EU's political bloc; and Macron's friendship with Trump was not much.
For a year and a half, Macron has been able to strengthen its visibility and that of France as champions of a globalist world view, but in so doing, it has made itself and its country a target. Although Macron can aspire to the global role once held by the US commander-in-chief, France is simply not America. And that makes all the difference in the world.
