The French Revolution of Modern Era “Emmanuel Macron”

The French Revolution of Modern Era

“Emmanuel Macron”

Emmanuel Macron

France the 6^th biggest economy in world, 2^nd biggest in Europe (after Brexit), an official nuclear state, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and a member of EU, G7, G20, NATO and OECD. France is a key player in World politics and its political and economical situation has a great impact over Global Political and diplomatic scenario.

Although France is of extreme importance both economically and Geo-Politically but things are not going well for France for the last 10 years, under the Leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-12) and Francois Hollande (2012-17) France failed to perform up to its standard at the Global level.

Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-12):

Nicolas Sarkozy became the President of French Republic on 16 May, 2007. Upon his arrival as the President of French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy’s first action was rescuing 6 Bulgarian medics detained in Libya, who were accused of infecting children with HIV and were held in Libya since 1999. This action also initiated a new France-Libya relationship and it was followed by signing of various military contracts worth millions of dollars, providing Libya with various kinds of anti-tank missiles. Later an ongoing negotiation was reported between France and Libya for establishment of various nuclear power plants in Libya. These actions drew strong criticism from other French parties as well as some German government officials.

Nicolas Sarkozy(left) with Gaddafi(right) at Elysee Palace in 2007

During his tenure Mr. Sarkozy ordered a huge crackdown against illegal immigrants and deporting a huge number of Romanian and Bulgarians, this action was strongly criticised by human rights organizations and fellow EU members. Mr. Sarkozy got divorced from Cécilia (his second wife) in 2007 and later married Singer, model Carla Bruni in Feb, 2008. Many accused Sarkozy himself of cultivating a flashy image to distract the public from negative aspects of his administration.

 Mr. Sarkozy’s biggest challenge during his Presidency was to lead France through the 2007-08 global economic crisis. But he failed to make significant improvements in France, at the end of his Presidential term unemployment rate in France raised from 7.2% to 9.8% highest in France since 2001. Many financial agencies including Standard&Poor also downgraded France’s financial ratings. Mr. Sarkozy was also more attracted towards US instead of fellow EU members as he criticised ECB’s monetary policy, stressed on fellow EU members for their role in NATO, better friendship with Israel and his tough attitude towards Iranian nuclear program. Reaching end of Presidential term Sarkozy was also surrounded by various corruption charges. He was accused of receiving 50M Euros for his election campaign from the former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi and was investigated in 2014 on suspicion of trying to influence various senior judges, he was interrogated for 15 hours by French Police.

Overall “The Sarkozy Administration” was surrounded by various corruption scandals, serious criticism from their allies and failure to lead France out of the economic crisis. Which resulted in to massive drop in his approval ratings and Nicolas Sarkozy became the only 2^nd French President who failed in a re-election bid since the foundation of Fifth Republic in 1958.

 François Hollande(2012-17):

 Francois Hollande defeated Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 French Presidential elections and became the President of France on 15 May, 2012. One of his top priorities was to stabilize the French economy but he failed to achieve his goal. Mr. Hollande himself admitted “he underestimated the economic crisis”. The unemployment rate further increased by 25%. Various international financial agencies further downgraded France’s financial ratings, in 2012 Moody’s downgraded France’s ratings from Aaa to Aa1, S&P downgraded ratings from AA+ to AA in November 2013, and in 2015 Moody’s degraded France for a 2^nd time from Aa1 to Aa2.

Mr. Hollande’s government came under heavy fire from the critics due to continuous security breach in the country. Including January 2015 attack in Charlie Hebdo, November 2015 Paris attack and July 2016 attacks in Nice and Normandy church attack all were a huge blow for the French security policy.

France supplied weapons worth 10 billion Euros to Saudi Arabia. Hollande’s opinions regarding Saudi Arabian led intervention in Yemen drew domestic and international controversy. Mr.Hollande appointed 3 different Prime Ministers during his term showing a situation of uncertainty in French politics. Mr. Hollande failed to deliver and decided not to run for a second term in December 2016.

Arrival of Emmanuel Macron:

Emmanuel Macron, a former civil servant and a former investment banker, first entered in to the French politics in 2014 as Minister of Economy and Finance, he made certain efforts to stabilize the French economy, his efforts helped to increase French share in Renault group from 15% to 20 %. Later on he presented Macron Law which was intended to rejuvenate the French economy by fixing regulations based around Sunday work, transport and driving licenses, public sector jobs and the transport market. OECD estimated that this law will result in 0.3% to 0.4% increase in French GDP over the next 5 to 10 years.

But due to increasingly deteriorating situation of France Mr. Macron decided to take one step further, he left his minister ship and decided to run for the President. Mr. Macron founded an independent political party “En Marche” on April 2016 and just after one year in May 2017 Mr. Macron won the French Presidential Elections and became the President of French Republic at the age of 39.

Facts about Mr. Macron are astonishing as he is the youngest French President at the age of 39 and first French President born after the Fifth Republic (1958), he won the Presidential election from a party that he founded a year ago in 2016 and his young party secured a decisive majority in the French legislative elections in June, 2017.

After assuming the charge President Macron flew to Germany and had a conversation with the German Chancellor Angela Markel with both leaders emphasizing on a strong French-German relation for a strong and stable European Union specifically after the Brexit. He also met with the US President Donald Trump and with Russian President Vladimir Putin in May.

President Macron’s vision is to restore a broken and gloomy France to its former glory and to make French people believe in themselves and their nation. His primary goals included improving French economy and to bring down the unemployment rate. Immediately after assuming office he turned all his attentions to achieve these goals, his government passed the law which will ban elected representatives from hiring close relatives in order to stop corruption in French politics. Followed by this Mr. Macron reformed labour laws and also stressed to act against companies who employ cheaper labour from Eastern Europe and ultimately affect the jobs of French workers. President Macron presented his first budget in September in which he proposed reduced taxes and spending to bring public deficit in line with the EU fiscal rules. He also imposed tax on sectors like real state ultimately imposing taxes on the rich ones to deal with inequality in the system. Mr. Macron aims to shift union–management relations away from the adversarial lines of the current French system and toward a more flexible, consensus-driven system modelled after Germany (Biggest Economy in Europe) and Scandinavia (Most prosperous part of Europe). These initial steps to galvanize the French economy are proving effective as recent figures showed a drop of 1.8% in unemployment rate.

The French parliament also passed a strict anti-terror law which will replace the state of emergency in France. President Macron also pledges his support for the Iranian Nuclear Deal unlike the newly elected US President Trump who is looking in an opposite direction. President Macron is looking forward to a strong relation with Tehran in order to ensure stability in region and to deal with the Syrian crisis also the French President is looking forward for a strong diplomatic and economic relationship with Iran, and is considering to travel to Iran in response to invitation from the Iranian President. President Macron is also having a different approach towards Russia as he urged Europe not to rebuff Putin and that the dialogues with Russia is vital in tackling various international disputes and have recently accepted an invitation and will fly to Russia next year for an Economic Forum.

President Putin (left) with President Macron (right) at Versailles Palace in May, 2017

Although the French ruling party faced a setback in form of failure in French Senate elections, but Mr. Macron is not allowing this set back to drive him away. He recently showed his influence and dominance in and out of France by filling a void left by the absence of Western Powers in the latest Middle East crisis where the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri son of Former PM and Billionaire Rafic Hariri announced his surprise resignation during his visit to Saudi Arabia which sparked a new debate and triggered a new crisis in Gulf region. President Macron visited UAE and Saudi Arabia where he met with the former Lebanese PM and invited him to France. Saad Hariri later visited France with his elder son and announced he’ll return to Lebanon. Mr. Macron played key role in resolving this issue which showed his influence as a political leader.

Saad hariri with President Macron at Elysee Palace

In the recent years other leading European nations are facing a serious political uncertainty with Britain having Brexit issue and the ruling Conservative Party losing a clear ruling majority in early elections, with Germany's ruling CDU/CSU losing a clear majority in the 2017 general elections followed by a failed coalition talks and Spain dealing with Catalan crisis, Europe is in a desperate need of a new leader to lead the group in future for the mutual benefit of all and France is the strongest candidate to fill the gap thanks to Emmanuel Macron. Also with US recently considering to step aside from 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and France taking the center stage to lead the reforms, France's importance and impact is increasing consistently. Emmanuel Macron is revolutionizing France in many ways and making France to relive its glory days.....