19 October 2017
I’m doing what I said I’d do.
Macron’s pledges.
By Richard Pooley
Last Sunday evening French president Emmanuel Macron gave his first domestic television interview since he became head of state in May. He was expected to follow precedent and address the people or hold a press conference on Bastille Day, July 14th. But he declined to do so, letting it be known that he did not want to bandy words with journalists who probably would not understand his “complex thought-process”. His presidency, he had already suggested, would be “Jupiterian”, dealing with the overall strategy, leaving the day-to-day tactics to his government ministers. This wish to rise above the fray apparently also meant he would avoid talking to the media. He has however deigned to hold press conferences abroad and was interviewed last month on CNN by Christiane Amanpour while attending the UN General Assembly in New York. That latter interview –
http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/09/19/intv-macron-complete-amanpour.cnn
– is nothing out of the ordinary, except for Amanpour’s final question about his love for his wife, 24 years older than him. Macron, in almost faultless yet simple English, dealt with that question as he had all the others, calmy, clearly and confidently.
So, my wife and I sat down and watched Sunday’s interview in the Élysée Palace not quite sure what to expect. Would the three journalists, France’s equivalents of the UK’s Paxman, Humphries and Kearney, be able to untangle those Jupiterian thought-processes and redeem themselves in the eyes of their fellow hacks? Would Macron become defensive if asked why his reforms of the French Labour Law and the French tax system had so swiftly made him so unpopular? Would he justify his use of coarse language to criticize those in France who he thinks are lazy or are not trying to help themselves to find employment and a better life? (See https://shawsheet.com/2017/10/11/issue-1242017-10-12does-macron-need-to-mind-his-argotrichard-pooley/) Would we be screaming “answer the question!” at the screen?
Well, I found it one of the strangest political interviews I have ever witnessed. As someone who occasionally trains business and professional people to give interviews, I have watched and analysed many done by politicians in order to learn the tricks of their trade. For just over an hour Macron spoke almost without a pause, never with any hesitation, but with lots of repetition. We never had to demand that he answer a question. That’s because he did answer each one, in full, sweeping on to other topics before returning to the one he had been asked about, talking over whatever follow-up question one of the hapless journalists was asking. His thought-process is indeed complex. He was not talking to or engaging with his interlocutors, as he had with Amanpour. Indeed, there was precious little interlocution, if that means what I understand it to mean: allowing others to interrupt and debate with you. He did not name his interviewers and very seldom used “you”. When he did, it was to counter the charge that he was “a president for the rich.” “In the statistics you count as rich too,” he said. “So, too, are you,” one replied, only to get a big shrug and a “So what?”
He wasn’t really talking to the millions of French viewers either. He said “Je suis le président de tous les Français” several times but the emphasis seemed to be on the “je” and “tous” rather than the “Français”. I’m sure “je” was top of his word count. His government and prime minister got a brief mention at the beginning. From then on it was mostly “I” rather than “we”. And if it was “we”, it sounded like the royal “we”. Was he talking to himself? To Jupiter?
His overall message was simple: “I’m doing what I said I’d do”. In other words, “I’m keeping my promises to the voters.” “It’s completely new!” he added with evident glee. But his language was prolix. To the accusation that his big reduction of tax on wealth and his support of entrepreneurs show that he is indeed a president for the rich, he had this to say: “I am a child of the provinces. I come from Amiens. I am not a child of spontaneous generation in a world of wandering nomads where everything is fine.” Yes, I scratched my head over that one too. I think he meant that he did not emerge from nowhere. Maybe he picked this up from Theresa May. Or he has read David Goodhart’s The Road to Somewhere and was telling the French that he is from Somewhere, in his case the solidly bourgeois northern town of Amiens, and is not a member of those footloose elites who could come from Anywhere.
Tackled about his use of slang, he refused to apologise: “I take complete responsibility for what was said. I was not looking to humiliate anyone…Our elites are not used to telling it like it is and think that it is the words which are unacceptable and not the reality which is behind those words.” He brought the Académie Française to his aid: he was using language they described as “populaire”, i.e. used by ordinary people. His language was at times so flowery that even my bilingual wife could not always grasp what he was saying. The etymology and exact meaning of one word – “croquignolesque” – is still being discussed online as I write. It’s not in my vast Oxford Hachette French dictionary but it appears to mean ridiculous. Not surprisingly, Macron’s enemies have used the word to describe the interview.
One of my first articles for Shaw Sheet was about Macron, then Economy Minister in the Hollande Government – https://shawsheet.com/2016/02/04/issue-39-2016-02-04-what-does-entrepreneur-mean-to-the-french-richard-pooley/. He had been shocked at how few French commentators understood what he meant by the word entrepreneur. He saw that the media and, let’s face it, most French people are anti-capitalist. They are opposed to wealth creation if this means that only a tiny few can become very rich. I sensed his intense frustration with his compatriots then. And one could hear and see it in the interview last Sunday. He seemed to want to shake those three journalists and all those watching out of their scepticism. He didn’t succeed.
Perhaps it doesn’t matter that he failed to convince. I am sure he does not care that his popularity has fallen so sharply. His party is in control of the National Assembly and its deputies show few signs of wishing to block his reforms, though he will allow them to make small changes (to the property tax which will replace the wealth tax, for instance). The strikes and street protests will continue but without great enthusiasm. There is one happening today. Have you heard much about it? Where is their power to stop him? As he keeps saying: “Je fais ce que j’ai dit.”
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