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PORTRAITS OF INFLUENCE
When emmanuel macron Was elected in may 2017, he
strode into his victory celebration not to the sounds of “La Marseil-
laise” but to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” the anthem of the European
Union. Now, halfway through his five-year term, the French Presi-
dent has finally emerged as the de facto leader of the Continent.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel drifting toward re-
tirement, and Britain searching desperately for Brexit, the French
leader has seized on seemingly every simmering transnational issue
as though he were an indispensable part of its solution: climate,
global trade, Iran sanctions, Russian aggression and China’s super-
power rivalry.
A theater actor in his high school days, this year Macron has cast
himself as a global decisionmaker. In November, he bluntly pro-
nounced NATO dysfunctionally “brain dead,” again suggesting
that the E.U. needs its own military alliance. In Beijing that same
month, he reviewed Chinese troops with President Xi Jinping and
sealed trade and climate deals, rendering the E.U.’s new trade com-
missioner a bit player.
Feeling empowered in Europe, Macron also seems to be done with
courting President Donald Trump. During a joint press appearance
in London on Dec. 2, Macron turned the tables on his U.S. counter-
part, cutting short an offhand comment about ISIS fighters. “Let’s
be serious,” Macron snapped, with a hint of exasperation that left
Trump uncharacteristically flustered.
At home, however, Macron faces enduring fury. Having struggled
through the violent protests of the Yellow Vest revolt of 2018, he is
back to his reform agenda, vowing to end sweetheart pension deals
that France can no longer afford. He was rewarded with the biggest
national strikes in many years in December, and a full-blown resur-
gence of the Yellow Vests may be on the horizon. Among the hun-
dreds of thousands of strikers who poured into the streets, some of
them chanted “Macron dégage!” or “Macron out!”
Voters will get their chance to make that a reality in 2022. Until
then, France’s President will be busy cementing the role he always
saw for himself—at the helm of Europe.
EMMANUEL
MACRON
President of France
BY VIVIENNE WALT
ILLUSTR ATION BY SHANA LEVENSON FOR TIME
