Imagine a General Charles de Gaulle in a place called the Shrine, where half-nude performers, dancers, entertainers, and an audience over whom no one had or could exercise any control by way of invitation or restriction, make up the bulk of those present. We shall not attempt to do a profiling of some of those who could be described as regular frequenters of such a place, friends of the house. The mere thought of it would definitely make the French general and former president turn in his grave. But witness the current president of the number five world power relishing the whole ambiance, dancing, shaking his head in rolled sleeves in unison with the rhythm of a legend called Fela, this time performed at that same venue by his offspring and disciples, not in the hallowed premises of the Elysée Palace or in a choice location somewhere in the 16tharrondissement, aTrocadero, the chic districts of Paris or its environs, but rather in the heart of the capital of Lagos State called Ikeja somewhere in the ‘jungle’ of black Africa.
Only an Emmanuel Macron could be ‘erratic’, crazy enough to be found in such an environment even as a serving president of France. Nicolas Sarkozy and his predecessor, Jacques Chirac,have been known to patronize stars like the French rock star,Johnny Hallyday, by inviting them to theElysée Palace, as an obvious campaign or charm gimmick or popularity swag. Indeed haughty Chirac once visited the equivalent of our own buka, called maquis, in next door Cotonou, in Bénin Republic, when he was president. But thatmaquis, Maquis la Résidence, was in a zone within the high profile district of the town, where embassies and international organizations abound, and indeed at a walking distance of the Béninois presidency. But in the case of Macron one cannot but sense a sincere expression of love, genuine natural bonding with his Nigerian friends, a nostalgic return to a slice of his past as an intern at the French Embassy with its French Cultural Centre which consistently hosted and launched upcoming and young Nigerian artists, including Femi Kuti and Lagbaja, even as it did not fail to celebrate the new red wine, the vintage Beaujolais Villages, at Ikoyi in the then capital of African’s most populous nation.
Should we really be surprised by the big cultural handshake, and headshake, of this young man aptly described as a man of all superlatives? A man who fell in love with and eventually married a lady twenty-four years his age senior, Brigitte Trogneux, his drama teacher at the secondary school, mother of three, one of who was his classmate, a lady who had to divorce her husband in a love story that has been described by some as weird ? It is this same young man that won a presidential race with a hitherto unknown movement,later political party, formed barely a year before the first round of the French elections of 2017. We have once called attention to the way France’s old long established political parties and governing coalitions fell like a pack of cards no thanks to Macron’s iconoclastic coup de matre, hismaster stroke.At 39 Macron not only won the presidential election with 66% but also went on to achieve a further landslide victory at the legislative elections shortly after by bringing into his En Marche movement politicians from both the right and the left of the French political spectrum as well as notable members of civil society, and achieving veritable gender parity in his cabinet.All that is now recent history.
However, Macron’s romance with the French electorate has turned out to be short-lived. Whereas it would appear that the French are known to fall out with leaders they elect not long after they come to power, in the case of Emmanuel Macron his own loss of love is once again in the superlative. The winner of the2017 French presidential and legislative polls had fallen to about 40% in approval ratings within three months of rising to power. And with that only his predecessor, the socialist Francois Hollande, had hit such a low ebb at a similar time of his tenure. But he bounced back to more favourable rating shortly after, a feat not achieved in the country since 1995. Another case of the Macron mystique. By the end of 2018 Macron’s approval rating had plunged to about 25%.
Two years into his five-year term the honeymoon seems to be over for Macron. He has been accused of being the president of the ultra-rich, a pro-business avatar, an aloof and arrogant person, even a spendthrift. Such mundane issues as the exorbitantcost of dishes ordered by the Elysée, or the fact that the president spent 26,000 Euros on makeup in his first quarter in office have not helped matters. Nor did the fact that he sought to give his wife a formal paid job as First Lady go down well with the French public. We should mention in passing that when our own president, elected two years before Macron, announced that he would phase out the office of First Lady ( and he has actually carried out that promise) hardly did he receive any perceptible accolade from Nigerians.But the crux of the matter is that Macron’s drive for labour reforms hasnot endeared him to alarge partof the electorate that brought him to power. He is accused of condemning welfarism whereas he indulges himself with taxpayers’ funds. The gilet jaune,i.e. yellow vest protests, and later movement, that came into being six months ago, initially as protests against fuel price hike, including the carbon tax, and the overall high cost of living, have continued to put the president on the back foot, even after he has made several concessions that should normally assuage the grievances and suffering of the less privileged. It is now as if the president can do no good.
The continued disaffection with Macron and his government’s policies have resulted in certain loss of political mileage with the European electionsonly a few days away. While some polls indicate that the populist far-right party of Marine Le Pen, the National Rally ( formerly National Front)would be tops, some say Emmanuel Macron’s party is running neck and neck with Marine Le Pen’s. How many of the 74 European Parliament seats allocated to France can Macron’s party and their friends hope to win on Sunday 26th May? Could that be the reason why Macron has now thrown his fullweight into the campaign in a country where some say the tradition is that French presidents normally stay in the background with European elections? But with Donald Trump’s former adviser, his Trojan horse, Steve Bannon now in Paris and reportedly backing Le Pen and other extreme right wing and populist politicians elsewhere in Europe, any wonder that Macron says he has to be involved as an ’actor’ to prevent the disintegration of Europe.
Whatever be the outcome of the European elections, considered in France by some to be a referendum on Macron and his policies, it is clear that the honeymoon that followed the marriage of May 2017 may just be over for the current occupant of the Elysée Palace.
- Ekundayo Simpson, Professor of French.
