Emmanuel Macron, the “saboteur of the Fifth Republic”

France is slipping into uncertainty. Several clues undoubtedly point in this direction, in particular this one: at the end of 2024, France will have had four different Prime Ministers. The name of the fourth is not yet known. We will see who Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic, will call after the fall of Michel Barnier. Seen from the outside, one could say: what does it matter if Parliament overthrows a Prime Minister without a majority? There will be another one, that's all.

But France has always been different. It was stable, firm at the top. And now all the scaffolding of the V^e Republic, which brought political stability to the country for almost seventy years, is disintegrating. There are more and more voices being raised to ask Macron to resign to end the blockage. It's a bit like asking a king to come down from his throne, and the Sun to leave the sky.

The king would have to recognize that there is an emergency

Macron is now considered the saboteur of the V^e Republic. By unnecessarily dissolving the National Assembly on July 9, he dramatically worsened the precariousness that already marked Parliament – ​​at a time when the world is in a sad situation, and public finances are in a lamentable state.

Of course, it is fair and democratic for Parliament to direct the history of a country. Except that the French Parliament has neither the culture nor the reflexes of other parliamentary systems. Compromises are frowned upon, coalitions considered inappropriate.

If Macron were an educator, he would call on people of good will from the Republican spectrum – that is to say everyone apart from the extremes of left and right, who are only eyeing his position anyway. –, would speak with them and encourage them to form a coalition of national unity. It would be an emergency government: France does not even have a budget for the coming year. But for this to happen, the king would have to recognize that there is an emergency and that he is primarily responsible for the situation. And that's not very likely.