Jacques Chirac used to say that on certain subjects – he was thinking of memorials, but diplomacy should obey the same rules or reflexes – a president should never improvise. Emmanuel Macron has had poor speech lately, as if, after losing control of clocks, he also lost control of words.
He made others responsible. Never in seven years, underlines the Elysée, has there been a leak on international affairs, those which involve the word of France. The author of the leak on the remarks made in the council of ministers concerning the creation of Israel was identified by the president’s advisers: no, it would not be a member of the government from the right; yes, malevolence was the main motivation of the person, a Macronist therefore, who reported. Did he say that Benjamin Netanyahu should not forget that his country was “created” by a UN decision or that he “benefited” from a UN decision? The Elysée has never clarified this.
There is one point on which the Head of State, in his anger, is right: a reported and unconfirmed declaration cannot be treated exactly like an official statement. But he is wrong to absolve himself of all responsibility. His statement on stopping arms deliveries to Israel, two days before the first commemoration of the terrorist massacres of October 7, owed nothing to anyone except him (even if the program had been recorded earlier). She created a context. Worse, a spiral.