The French may not know it, but their President of the Republic would have, according to the New York Times,, hollow nose. Its warnings on “the state of brain death” of NATO, on the need to send European troops to the ground to help Ukraine, or to “the relevance of the concept of strategic autonomy appear today premonitory”, concedes the American reference title. So many paradigms discussed in his “radical” speech pronounced at the Sorbonne in 2017 notes the Washington Post.
A lucidity that strengthens its credibility on the international scene – the Washington Post Described in particular a French president “back at the center of the international game, struggling with the greats of this world” – but not only. In the space of two months, the popularity rating of Emmanuel Macron has swelled 9 points, going from 18 % of 27 % favorable opinion, according to A survey Posted Thursday March 13 by THE Echo. This, even though he “seemed to be condemned to finish the last three years of his mandate in lame duck”, formulates the New York Times.
This proposal which made “fly” with Vladimir Putin
A popularity relativized by the British weekly conservative The spectator : “Few French people trust him to effectively manage the situation in Ukraine”. For its part, the Swiss-German daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger try to explain the causes of this rise in the polls. According to our colleagues, Emmanuel Macron would enjoy a triple advantage.
Primo, the constitutional regime of the Fifth Republic “gives him powers of which no American president can boast” […]. Deuzio, the head of state would have a “brilliant spirit” who “can speak and do not deprive yourself of it”. Tertio, he is at the head of a tricolor nuclear power which he plans to pool with other European states. A widening of the nuclear umbrella which “raises completely essential questions”, points out the newspaper, referring to the internal political divisions that an enlargement of nuclear power arouses.
An idea that has the merit of having made “fly”, notes the Transalpin newspaper The Repubblica. Underbuilding that he could ensure the role of protector of Europe that the United States had previously played, Emmanuel Macron would have forced Vladimir Putin “to break the silence,” said the Italian daily.
Rather Napoleon or de Gaulle?
Like many other press titles, The Repubblica returned to the peaks exchanged between the French president and the master of the Kremlin who led to an epidemic of caricatures published by the Russian press. Most represent Emmanuel Macron “by Napoleon riding towards his defeat and even the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov,” said the Transalpine daily. In Spain, El Mundo Even explained the reasons why Vladimir Putin compared Emmanuel Macron to Napoleon: “This is an allusion concerning the military campaign led by the French emperor against Tsar Alexandre I in 1812, a disastrous company that marked the start of his decline”.
From Napoleon to Emmanuel Macron? El País Prefers another comparison, seeing in this young head of state more a reflection of the founder of the Fifth Republic. “Emmanuel Macron evokes General de Gaulle, in silence for weeks for weeks, by his gestures, by his attempt to take the head of the European offensive so as not to be left out in a possible peace process in Ukraine, and by his growing distrust of the United States as a great ruling power of the Western armies”, develops the Spanish daily: “Macron is looking at the Mirror of Gaulle.
A state of grace, which could only be “moment”
Some are interested in the rapprochement of Emmanuel Macron with two other heavyweights of the old continent, encouraged by the return of Donald Trump to the White House: the Britain of Keir Starmer and the Germany of Friedrich Merz. Across the Channel, our colleagues from The Economist Admit for example that Franco-British links “seem more solid than they have been for many years”. For its part, the Brussels title Politico Note that “without Trump, it is not certain that the two leaders [NDLR : Friedrich Merz et Emmanuel Macron] would have left for such good foundations. “
The – Now recurrent – Correlation between the worsening of international crises and the rise in the popularity rating of Emmanuel Macron pushes to question: “Cynics could wonder if Macron does not take advantage of this situation to restore his image after disastrous months,” mocks the magazine The spectator Who paints the portrait of a France in “ruins”, suffocated by the problems of insecurity, the concern aroused by immigration, and an “flickering economy”.
And our colleagues from Tages-Anzeiger To abound: “Macron is a weak president, without majority in parliament” and whose government “can be swept overnight”, who “says he wants to find billions for national rearmament, despite imposing debt, and without increasing taxes”. Thus, the “moment of grace” enjoyed by Emmanuel Macron, according to the formula of the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger,, could only be “short -lived”.