Robert Tombs joined John Keiger and Will Kingston on Spectator TV to discuss the political turmoil in France and what this means for Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. Here is an extract of what Robert had to say.
Emmanuel Macron’s legacy is very likely to be disastrous. He’s a very intelligent man, a man of great qualities. I once saw him when he was newly elected when he came to England and he attended a meeting, a sort of reception, with Theresa May at the time. Poor Theresa May was standing in a corner on her own, and Macron was surrounded by admirers. Macron gave a rather brilliant improvised speech in English and Mrs. May was able to, with great difficulty, say a few, read a few French sentences off a piece of paper, and I thought this man is very clever and very able.
I remember one French journalist once saying he’s always been the cleverest man in the room, and that’s how he’s been brought up. I think this certainly has led to an assumption that he knew what to do, and he could do it – and he was right.
And in some ways, it’s true. To try to reduce the financial deficit, to increase the age of retirement – these were very sensible things to do. The thing is, he’s not been able to do them. He hasn’t been able to take the country with him or explain to people why these somewhat painful things are necessary, in a way that was done in this country with hardly any debate. You may remember after the 2008 crash, we put up the retirement age pretty quickly. It’s an obviously sensible thing to do. But to the French, it’s an attack on their hard-won rights.
Macron seems less and less a person who is able to convince people and take them with him. He appears to be and perhaps is arrogant, tactless, convinced of his own superiority. When he began in office, this impressed a lot of people. You know, this Jupiter idea: he would be remote but dominant. This is all collapsed and I think his legacy is going to be one of complete failure and possibly of national disaster.
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