{"id":95092,"date":"2026-07-15T15:25:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/95092\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:25:36","slug":"europes-centrists-are-falling-one-by-one-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/95092\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe’s centrists are falling one by one"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few in France will have been as devastated by their team\u2019s defeat in last night\u2019s World Cup semi-final as Emmanuel Macron<\/a>. The president put on a brave face, tweeting his congratulations to Spain and thanking the French team \u201cfor carrying our colors with commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how Macron must have dreamed of a French World Cup triumph in Sunday\u2019s final. He would have been in New Jersey \u2013 as he was in Moscow in 2018 when the\u00a0Bleus\u00a0won the World Cup \u2013dancing a jig as his b\u00eate noire, Donald Trump, presented the trophy to\u00a0his\u00a0boys.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s presidency is ending with a whimper<\/p>\n

In a sense the French football team are a metaphor for Macron\u2019s presidency. They won the World Cup in 2018 playing football that sparkled with panache and passion, which was how Macron was still seen by most of the country.<\/p>\n

Against Spain last night there was no panache and passion from France. They were eliminated with barely a whimper. And that is how Macron\u2019s presidency is ending.<\/p>\n

A poll at the start of this month revealed that only 23 percent of the French have confidence in Emmanuel Macron to tackle the problems facing the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since he came to power in 2017 Macron\u2019s priority has always been Europe. In his first major speech, at the Sorbonne in September that year, Macron declared: \u201cThe only way to guarantee our future is to re-establish a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

That has been his obsession ever since. On\u00a0Monday he gave his last address to the armed forces, a presidential tradition on the eve of July 14, Bastille Day. His critics noted that he mentioned Europe more than France (19 references to 18). He praised the \u201cthe ability of Europeans to take control of their own destiny and take charge of their own security, bringing together so many European nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macron also used the speech to take a swipe at Marine Le Pen\u2019s National Rally who continue to ride high in the polls. \u201cWherever nationalism is pandered to, whether in France or elsewhere, we are misunderstanding our own history,\u201d he said. \u201cPatriotism, yes; nationalism, never.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those remarks were similar to comments made by Britain\u2019s premier Keir Starmer in the summer of 2024. \u201cWe should be alive in the UK to the challenge of the far right and populism and nationalism,\u201d he said, pointing to what is \u201chappening in other European countries, including in France and in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer made his comments in a joint press conference with Germany\u2019s Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz was forced out of office a few months later having lost the confidence of his country. Now it is Starmer\u2019s turn to clear his desk.<\/p>\n

He won\u2019t be missed, except perhaps by Emmanuel Macron. The pair have been firm friends ever since Starmer visited the \u00c9lys\u00e9e in 2023 for what were described as \u201cwarm and engaging\u201d talks.<\/p>\n

According to Macron\u2019s office, they discussed the \u201cimportance of reinforcement cooperation between France and the UK so this partnership continues to bring prosperity and security to the French and British.\u201d<\/p>\n

How has that worked out? Both countries are ravaged by insecurity, unable or rather unwilling to control their borders, with one result a sharp rise in crimes of a sexual nature. \u00a0<\/p>\n

As for prosperity, last month France\u2019s public debt passed the \u20ac3.5 trillion ($4 trillion) mark \u2013 117.5 percent of GDP and it shows no signing of slowing. Unemployment is rising<\/a> and living standards are falling. The outlook is just as grim in Britain. The country borrowed \u00a323.3 billion ($31 billion) in May, almost a third up on the same month last year, and economists warned that \u201cpublic finances are fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n

But none of this much bothers Macron or Starmer because it\u2019s Europe that counts. This week the president awarded Starmer the Legion d\u2019honneur. It is the first time a serving British prime minister has received France\u2019s top honor.<\/p>\n

Macron thanked Starmer for his commitment to \u201cthe security of Europe, Ukraine, the bilateral relationship.\u201d He added: \u201cI wanted to reiterate my gratitude and the gratitude of the French people, obviously for your years as prime minister\u2026all the human qualities that we learn to appreciate, all those remain very important to all of us. We found with you a very reliable and friendly partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least someone finds Starmer reliable. His successor, Andy Burnham, has promised an \u201ceven closer relationship\u201d with Europe. Not with France. Macron will be gone in nine months and the polls indicate he will be replaced by either Marine Le Pen or Jean-Luc Melenchon.<\/p>\n

Bonne chance, Burnham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few in France will have been as devastated by their team\u2019s defeat in last night\u2019s World Cup semi-final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24797,1284,39,4,40,90,100,2257],"class_list":["post-95092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-andy-burnham","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-keir-starmer","tag-macron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}