Emmanuel Macron was received with great fanfare at the White House on Thursday, December 1, 2022. But the French president did not obtain any concrete progress on the main issues discussed with Joe Biden.
Verbal spades, hugs and broad smiles in front of the photographers, but no real concrete progress. Having left for the United States with the ambition of making Joe Biden flinch and obtain economic guarantees for the European Union, Emmanuel Macron will finally return to France empty-handed, without having been able to get his American counterpart to move on the Inflation Reduction Act. . This massive support plan for the American economy provides for the payment of substantial subsidies to households for the purchase of 100% USA products, throughout the manufacturing chain, in particular for electric cars. Europeans fear that certain industries concerned and established on the Old Continent will fly across the Atlantic, for fear of losing the American market.
If it was as President of the French Republic that Emmanuel Macron was received during this state visit, the tenant of the Elysée Palace especially tried to be the spokesperson for the EU on Thursday December 1, at the White House, not mincing words towards a plan deemed “super aggressive” and “choices that will fragment the West.” What does it matter for Joe Biden: “The United States does not apologize, I do not apologize.” The private discussion of the two men, lasting nearly two hours on Thursday, therefore did not lead to a consensus, while Emmanuel Macron aimed to obtain exemptions for certain European industrialists. Nothing has been conceded by the American president, even if “we want to succeed together, not against each other” specified the French president, adding that the two countries would work to “synchronize our approaches and our agendas to invest in critical emerging industries such as semiconductors, hydrogen, batteries.” On the economic level, Emmanuel Macron has therefore relatively failed, the Head of State will return to France with promises of Franco-American cooperation on the conquest of space, he who had embarked Thomas Pesquet and Sophie Adenot at his side .
On the international side, Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden have agreed to maintain their support for Ukraine in the face of Russia, the American president saying he is “ready to talk to Putin if he is looking for a way to end the war”, even if he “hasn’t done it yet.” Finally, the two nations want to “coordinate” on China and the issues of human rights and climate change. In short, if the decorum around Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington for two days dazzled, this pomp came to hide a visit which ultimately did not allow the French president to obtain any progress, simply to ensure that the United States is indeed “France’s oldest friend.”