We hope for a full house. This Wednesday, November 13, the guests of the round table organized at the Collège de France by the economist Philippe Aghion are, it is true, prestigious. To talk about the future of European competitiveness, the former Harvard professor invited to his side the “savior of the euro”, former president of the European Central Bank and short-lived president of the Italian council, Mario Draghi who will discuss with …the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
The first is the author of a report which caused a stir in September to warn of the technological and economic decline of the Old Continent in the face of China and the United States. The second, deprived of most of the executive powers since the failed dissolution of June, wants to prove to the French that he was right about “his historical strategic intuition” advocating the“European independence”we indicate at the Elysée, confirming the presence of the head of state on rue Marcelin Berthelot.
From the stage of the Marguerite de Navarre amphitheater, Emmanuel Macron will remind Europeans “that they must take control of their destiny”we predict at the palace. While the government is entangled in parliamentary negotiations to adopt the budget for the coming year, the President of the Republic imagines himself in Pythia for, according to an Elysian advisor, “pull the thread” of one of its strong points: Europe.
“Back to basics”
His teams perceive this round table as a continuation of the long speech delivered at the Sorbonne on April 26 by the President of the Republic. “Europe can die”, he raved from Parisian university. “We are in danger,” he storms again from Germany, on October 2, on the sidelines of the Berlin Global Dialogue. “The world is made up of herbivores and carnivoresif we decide to remain herbivores, the carnivores will win”he finally supports from Budapest on November 7, the day after the election of Donald Trump as head of the United States, calling for a revival in the Old Continent.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers US presidential election 2024: Macron congratulates Trump and calls for a “more united, stronger Europe”
Read later
The presence of Emmanuel Macron at the Collège de France is seen as a “back to basics”, by the entourage of the Head of State. But during his discussions with Mario Draghi, the forty-year-old could, for a moment, feel dizzy. Ten years earlier, then “simple” Minister of the Economy, Emmanuel Macron was a spectator, in this same room, to listen, on 1is October 2015, the inaugural lesson of Philippe Aghion, newly appointed to the Collège de France. The time was that of the conquest of power.
You have 35.19% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
