France is ‘going to the dogs,’ Macron’s inner circle despairs

Humiliated by the far-right National Rally in the EU election, Macron delivered a bombshell announcement June 9 that he would try to hold back the advances of the right with a national election. Since then, Macron’s top team has been conspicuous for their doubts, grumbling and low spirits.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire — a pillar of Macron’s Renaissance liberal party — won the award for most apocalyptic diagnosis on a campaign stop in northern France after Le Figaro quoted him bemoaning that “the country is going to the dogs.”

Such bilious despair poses a problem for France’s future. One of the biggest questions facing French politics, after all, is who will fill the massive vacuum in the political center when Macron’s presidency ends in 2027.

Those scanning the top table for a liberal savior will be disappointed. Macron’s centrist coalition risks being wiped out in a vote spanning two rounds — on June 30 and July 7 — by the left as well as by the far right. The president’s allies, meanwhile, appear to be seeking an exit strategy rather than glory in a famous last stand.

Barbed comments about the French president, once only whispered, are now being expressed openly. Macron loyalist Le Maire said the leader had taken the decision to dissolve parliament alone — and that the choice “has created, in our country, among the French people, everywhere, anxiety, misunderstanding and sometimes anger,” as he put it on French radio.

That’s a decidedly discordant note from Le Maire, who only weeks ago was tipped to be Macron’s nominee for an all-powerful EU economy commissioner role to advance the country’s industrial agenda in Brussels.

Early exits

The timing of the parliamentary election has hamstrung Macron’s allies, who hadn’t even begun to limber up ahead of a duel with far-right foe Marine Le Pen in the next presidential election in 2027. Macron can’t run for re-election, and several coalition partners including Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, former PM Édouard Philippe and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin have been eyeing his job.

Now, with the political center reeling, some are going their own way and staking out more independent platforms.

Meanwhile, the ultimate prize — the presidency — seems ever further away.

“It has properly kicked off the succession race, but whereas the goal was about reigning over a palace, now it’s about inheriting a shed,” said Benjamin Morel, a political scientist at the Paris Panthéon-Assas University.

But Macron makes no bones about risking the political fortunes of his allies in his latest gamble.

“There may be personal ambitions that have been thwarted by the current changes, it’s duly noted. But it’s not important, we are facing a historic moment for the nation,” (ER: we should believe him) he said during a press conference last week.

Topping the list of those whose ambitions have been thwarted is Attal. Sitting opposite Macron in the black-and-white photograph, the young PM clearly took a body blow. After avoiding the public for 24 hours, Attal re-emerged last Tuesday to disparage Macron’s decision as “sudden” and “brutal.”

Despite his obvious dismay at the decision to dissolve parliament, he later rallied to insist: “Now is not the time for qualms.”

But what will befall Attal? Before Macron’s election gambit the 35-year-old rising centrist star — who is more popular than the president — was being groomed for the top spot.

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Attal has also been humiliated by being excluded from Macron’s recent political consultations, despite the fact the snap election will almost certainly end his premiership.

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