Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Emmanuel Macron and the restoration of French monarchy

Have the French belatedly realised the error of their regicide and decided to restore the monarchy?  If so, will the regime of Emmanuel Macron, whose seizure of power must certainly be inspiring politicians around the globe with its brutal efficacy, end the same way?  Macron’s glittering and symbolic appearance yesterday at the Palace of Versailles to address a joint session of the National Assembly – over which he currently exercises complete domination – and the Senate, will give historians, semioticians and journalists plenty to mull (although Macron has said that his thoughts are too complex to be explained to the media). But Macron played a blinder. Many French deeply regret not having a king. Now, at least for the next five years, they seem to have one.

In a state of the republic speech lasting an hour and a half, Macron bewitched, seduced and confused. He sketched in the broadest possible terms the simultaneous objectives of a profound reform of French political institutions, an unblocking of the sclerotic French economy, a restoration of the European Union (with France at its centre), and above all, the rehabilitation of the glory of France, with himself at the centre.

This morning, at Marie-Trinité’s cafe in our village, and later in phone calls to a friend who is an opposition deputy, and several others on my go-to list of astute political observers, I consulted my usual focus group and found, to my surprise, a reaction generally much less hostile than I’d anticipated, although not universally so. ‘I think we must give him a chance,’ said Catherine, a Républican who voted against Macron but who now believes that perhaps, after all, he will deliver the reforms she wants. Benoît, an unabashed supporter of the National Front, muttered of there having been something resembling a coup d’état, executed by means of a perverse electoral system that saw Macron come to power with the support of the media, the bankers and much of the political establishment, although with the backing of fewer than 20 percent of the electorate. 

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