the “French Trump”, a television pundit
and anti-immigrant zealot, to the far-left
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a Nato-hating former
supporter of Vladimir Putin who sounds
nostalgic for the revolution and wants to
“sweep away” the elite.
Change in France has long been
accompanied by lynch mobs and bloodshed
— fear of the mob is encoded in the DNA
of French presidents. As the Sunday Times
Paris correspondent from 2001 to 2016,
I covered three of them: the Gaullist Jacques
Chirac, known for his fondness for sumo
wrestling; Sarkozy, mocked for his love of
“bling”; and the scooter-riding socialist
François “I hate the rich” Hollande.
They fascinated — and occasionally
shocked — the nation with their tangled
sex lives and financial affairs. At Pernaut’s
funeral, for example, Sarkozy was thought
to be wearing an electronic bracelet on his
ankle after being sentenced last September
to a year’s detention at home over an illegal
campaign funding scandal, one of several
to haunt him in office.
He and his predecessors were reviled
for having the temerity to attack France’s
almost religious commitment to short
working weeks and early retirement, and
ended up backing down. The uproar over
Macron’s attempts at reform is further
proof of how chronically allergic France is
to change. It also demonstrates the limits ofits presidential system, effectively an
elected monarchy crafted six decades ago
for the Fifth Republic and Charles de Gaulle.
“It’s difficult to be president,” explains Jean
Garrigues, a leading historian on France’s
political culture. “The president has more
power than virtually any other executive
position in the world, even more than an
American president.” By contrast the
Assemblée nationale, France’s parliament,
is an empty shell.
No recent French leader has embraced
these powers with quite the same gusto
as Macron. He has revelled in welcoming
foreign heads of state to the Palace of
Versailles, delighting, like most of his
predecessors, in strutting the world stage.
But he has also exercised his presidential
right to decide more rarefied matters that
might otherwise have been left to panels
of experts, from how to rebuild the
fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral to
who should lead the Paris Opera.
“The president is responsible for
everything, so he ends up personally being
blamed for everything,” says Gaspard
Koenig, a philosopher who is campaigning
for a more participatory democracy. “It’s
an impossible task for any human being.”
François Mitterrand, the former socialist
leader whose nickname was “God”, is
remembered for “great works” such as the
Louvre’s giant glass pyramid. Macron, too,
has a passion for playing the Sun King.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in
his modifications at the Panthéon, a
monument to French glory and the resting
place for national heroes such as Voltaire,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Victor Hugo.
When I visit one evening, celestial voices
emanate from speakers hidden high in the
cavernous expanse. Guests have gatheredSOME LIKEN HIM
TO THE CARTOON
CHARACTER
BARBAPAPA,
A SHAPE-SHIFTING
BLOB. “HE HAS
NO IDEOLOGICAL
VERTEBRAE”
VIVE LA REVOLUTION
“Macron out!” and “Long
live the people’s war”
were among the slogans
of the French gilets jaunes
protesters who in 2018-
vented fury at high fuel
prices, low wages and
their feeling of provincial
powerlessness against urban
elites. While Macron has had
some success since then
in freeing up the French
economy and bringing
down unemployment,
deep grievances remain.
Politicians on the far right
play on the fear that Muslim
immigrants are a threat to
traditional French culture;
others on the far left had
(before the war in Ukraine)
preferred Russia to the US.
In the middle weaves Macron.
A survey in January found
that 52 per cent thought
“experts”, not elected
politicians, should run the
country; 39 per cent wanted
an unelected strongman
and 27 per cent said the
army should take control.Above: with his wife, Brigitte,
24 years his senior. Left: Vladimir
Putin is given a tour of Versailles
during a state visit in 2017PREVIOUS PAGES: GETTY IMAGES. THESE PAGES: ALAMY, AP, GETTY IMAGES, BRIDGEMAN IMAGES, GUILLAUME / AGENCE VU FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE ➤
The Sunday Times Magazine • 11