A influencer French He shared in Tiktok on January 22 his anger because they had fined him for using the phone behind the wheel, when what he was trying was to pay the toll with his mobile. Among the many answers that the publication received, he highlighted that of Emmanuel Macron: “I think that in 2025 you have to be able to pay the toll with the phone,” the president intervened through his own account on the social network, to conclude: “So I have transmitted this matter to the Minister of the Interior and, collectively, we will fix it.”
The French press used the anecdote to question himself about the new situation of the French president, who after the July elections had lost influence in political life. While it is true that Emmanuel Macron appointed an ally in December – François Bayrou – in the position of Prime Minister, the French head of state has lost control of the legislative agenda for the first time since 2017 for lack of a clear majority in the National Assembly.
From the outset, the new prime minister, veteran of French politics and leader of a minority party within the Centrista Forces alliance, managed to impose his appointment on Macron. The president wanted a member of his party in office, but after an ultimatum in which Bayrou threatened to withdraw his deputies from the presidential coalition if he did not access the Head of Government, Macron ended up yielding.
And although the president retains influence on Bayrou and could ensure that two of his faithful occupied the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, he has barely participated in matters of internal policy, such as negotiations on the budgets of recent months.
Despite the scarce margin of maneuver that it has in the National Assembly, the prime minister has so far defined government action with greater independence than any of its predecessors in recent years. To the point of meeting the criticism of the president regarding certain decisions, such as the rise – temporal – of the taxes to the large multinationals, a decision contrary to the policy launched in 2017 of favorable taxation for companies.
Many observers have been considering since last summer that in the two years that they have left mandate macron could be confined to a ceremonial role and some personal projects. Among them, just one month after the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral, the president announced his personal involvement in the restoration of the Louvre, only a few days after a confidential note that alerted about the state of the museum’s facilities was filtered to the newspaper Le Parisien.
In the center of the stage
But the situation of the French president has changed radically in just one month, in which changes in the international context have propelled him to the center of the scene. The speech in Munich of the United States Vice President, JD Vance, Donald Trump’s statements in which he described Volodimir Zelenski as a dictator and direct negotiations between the United States and Russia over Ukraine lit all alarms in much of the European capitals.
Since then, Macron has not abandoned the first diplomatic line, or to maintain contact with the White House or to prepare a European response. First, with an urgent summit of European leaders in the Elysium and then with a visit to Trump in the Oval Office – prodigate in smiles and strong hands -hands -, in addition to the Meeting of Heads of State and Government that was held in London.
“You have erected in the main leader of the European Union to respond to the emergence of a new world order, which raises great challenges to the Member States,” the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, congratulated you a few weeks ago during the Macron state visit.
The most recent example of Macron’s diplomatic efforts is the Chiefs of Staff Conference of about thirty countries that are celebrated these days in the École Militaire of Paris. The objective of the meeting is that the main military managers of European and NATO countries can discuss ways to achieve “credible security guarantees” for the application of a peace process in Ukraine, in case according to Russia.
The Military Leaders Summit had been announced on March 5 during its televised speech against the French, in which, in a solemn tone, it had announced the entry into “a new era.” One was marked, in his opinion, by the Russian threat on Europe and for the need of Europeans to ensure their own defense. That same day, Macron received the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán in the Elysium, before moving to the state of heads of state in Brussels. This Monday he met with his counterpart Moldova, Maia Sandu, and Wednesday with President Uzbeko, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
At the European level, doubts about the next steps of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have created a conducive context so that Macron can advance in the great lines of action that has long been defending, such as European autonomy in defense and common loans to finance large community projects. At the head of the only EU country that has nuclear weapons, Macron hopes that his willingness to discuss an evolution of the French nuclear deterrence policy, to integrate the continental dimension, can be part of the debates on European defense.
I breathe in the surveys
In France it is usually considered that foreign defense and politics are “Réservés Domaines”(Exclusive matters) of the President, although the constitutionalists often point out that such a statement is not based on any legal text and is rather a custom. In any case, Bayrou and Macron seem comfortable in this distribution of roles, which is summarized in a formula of Jacques Chirac: “The president deals with France, the French prime minister.”
The seizures of the international scene and its possible consequences have given a respite an unpopular president before a public opinion that blames him for political instability, the result of the call for early legislative elections last year. After beating his unpopularity record in the polls several times, Emmanuel Macron recorded in recent weeks a three -point improvement, According to an Elabe survey for the newspaper They throw themthe first since August 2024.
However, some opposition leaders are concerned that, on the back of the military and the international, Macron also gain weight in internal policy, eclipseing Bayrou. A possibility that particularly worries in the extreme right and in the media of the group of the conservative millionaire Vincent Bolloré. In addition, on the left, France Insumisa has shown its concern for the possibility that the increase in defense expenditure means cuts in public services or be instrumentalized to stop the review of pension reform.
“Emmanuel Macron has realized that [la nueva situación] It is a way to boost their image and weaken their political opponents, in particular to the National Group, which is trapped among its Trumpist sympathies and its great indulgence with the Russia of Putin, ”analyzed the journalist on Wednesday Alexandra Schwartzbrod in the newspaper Libraration. “Could the president be taking advantage, under the pretext that we must finance the country’s rearmament, to quell the debate about the convenience of his sacrosanct pension reform and weaken the social model? It would be unfortunate. And a dangerous game. Public opinion is afraid, but knows how to recognize a hoax, ”he warned.
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