This week the calendar brings together two very important events for Emmanuel Macron: the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, awaited for five years, and the great political upheaval after the fall of the Barnier government. One puts France in the firmament, the other places it in a situation of instability and feverishness. This moment is almost a metaphor for the presidency of Emmanuel Macron.
This is a particularly eloquent “at the same time”. Splendor and decadence at the same time for a president caught up in a tumultuous political agenda at the time of celebrating one of the most significant events of his two five-year terms. When the cathedral Notre-Dame of Paris had caught fire, Emmanuel Macron emerged from the crisis “Yellow vests”. He had to address the French in a televised speech, recorded and never broadcast, because upon seeing the flames destroy the religious building so emblematic of the capital, the head of state immediately changed his strategy. He went to the burning Notre-Dame and announced his ambition: to rebuild and reopen the cathedral in five years. A bet that some believed to be unrealizable, a promise that was ultimately kept.
Reopening of Notre-Dame and censorship crisis
Ironically, five years later, at a time when we are celebrating Notre-Dame rebuilt, the head of state addressed the French to tell them about a new crisis. An unprecedented political crisis caused by a decision by Emmanuel Macron: the dissolution which never ceases to boomerang back on the president. Michel Barnier censored after three months of vain efforts to have a budget adopted, it was on Emmanuel Macron that the pressure returned, forcing him to deliver a speech to reassure the French worried about governmental instability, when the eyes of the world everyone would turn to Paris and its monument restored by artisans of the finest French know-how. The reopening of Notre-Dame suddenly became the date around which the appointment of a Prime Minister was to take place, caught up in political news which broke into the reconstruction calendar.
Party ruined?
Is the celebration of the reopening of Notre-Dame spoiled? She is parasitized. The message is garbled. The diplomatic high mass with Donald Trumpthe re-elected American president, as a distinguished guest, and a procession of personalities from all over the world, which Emmanuel Macron had organized on the occasion of the reopening of Notre-Dame, is hit by the political crisis which reflects the image of a France in ellipsis mode, threatened by repeated censorship and a worn-out, weakened president, while he dreamed of embodying a head of state capable of making the ” French pride “. Grandeur and miseries of the destiny of Emmanuel Macron.
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