He knows all the presidents of the Fifth Republic better than anyone, this head of state is unlike any other. The inimitable Alain Duhamel devotes his latest book, The Scarred Prince (Editions de l’Observatoire), to the incomparable Emmanuel Macron, “the most original, the most disconcerting, the most stinging” of the Élysée hosts. The observer insists on the singularity of this “born atypical” of whom he notes that, “it is almost surprising, he has more charm, authority and seduction than charisma”. The parallel between his two presidential campaigns of 2017 (“brilliant, cheerful and original”) and 2022 (“disappointing, minimalist and late”) obviously does not work to the advantage of the second, which leads to this baroque five-year term. The outcome of which remains uncertain, especially since Emmanuel Macron has become, “even more than any of his predecessors, the president that the French love to hate”, the one who “triggers squalls like no one else”.
Beyond the crises that have characterized recent years, the “hatred” that has taken hold, the “regression of French democracy”, Alain Duhamel is also looking ahead. It is not because Emmanuel Macron is incomparable that he will be irreplaceable. Will this then be the end of Macronism? “Certainly, there is no macronism rooted in society as there was under the Fifth Republic Gaullism or Mitterrandism, to a lesser degree Giscardism or Sarkozysm. Macronism is a sensibility more than a family, a socio-cultural status more than a commitment, an ideology more than a doctrine, a sympathy more than a fervor.” Will the parenthesis close so that the right-left divide can be reborn? Nothing is certain, according to the journalist, who notes that between “the radicalized left” and “the extremist right”, there now exists “a larger center than ever under the Fifth Republic”.
The battle has already begun, and Alain Duhamel reviews the different protagonists. Within the majority: there is François Bayrou, “the archetype of the French politician, no one wears so many chevrons on their left sleeve”; Bruno Le Maire, who “even if he has the typical appearance of these well-born Enarque ministers, also has experience in the field”; Gérald Darmanin, “his boundless audacity, often bordering on imprudence or impudence”; Edouard Philippe, “sometimes more stiff than intuitive, more firm than flexible”. And across the entire spectrum: Marine Le Pen, who knew how to demonize herself during the first five-year term and now wants to “become respectable and even institutionalized”; Jean-Luc Mélenchon, except that “his group caricatures itself” and that he appeared within LFI “as an absolute sovereign, he who never tires of questioning the “authoritarian drift” and “monarchical behavior “by Emmanuel Macron”; François Rufin, “despising the media – who of course adore him”; Laurent Wauquiez, who “reigns over his region, autocratic, partisan but very effective”; Xavier Bertrand, “round on the outside, tough on the inside”, and who is “not afraid of demagoguery”; still others… Alain Duhamel has only one certainty: Emmanuel Macron’s successor will not resemble him any more than his predecessors.