Political Critique: We will save Europe! The problem with Macron’s rhetorical loop

Watching Macron’s speech at the Sorbonne last week it was exactly this – the show’s leitmotif – that came to mind. I don’t want to caricature an intervention that was valid in many ways, founded on a courageous vision and delivered with a charisma that was both strong and sober, but the more insidious ‘loop’ at its base. Indeed Macron’s intervention can certainly be seen as necessary in a context where there are so few innovative ideas. And it might actually be useful if – as it seemed to many – this was a search for an interlocutor, a way to open a dialogue, while putting his opinion out there. [...]

Let’s look at the facts. No European country has a majority that prioritises ‘being European’ over its own nationality (Eurobarometer May 2017). How we see Europe, what it is and what we think it should do varies from region to region, country to country. If for some Italian citizens it might seem an urgent priority to confront the migration question, and to worry about it, many other countries have shown they are not in agreement with solving this in a shared manner. Not to mention the economic rigour of Germany which has created resentment in half the continent but has been a landmark in the country’s domestic politics. With so many competing priorities what we are left with is a mosaic of different visions about what European institutions should be and do, dictated by internal political dynamics that necessarily have repercussions on the relationships – and power balance – between different nations.

The six ‘key points’ identified by the French President – youth, innovation, common defence, a joint eurozone budget, climate change, migration – will need to transform themselves into a passpartù, capable of opening the national gates that limit action within existing political communities. The alternative, that no leader of state can really permit, is a great relinquishing of sovereignty. Leaving aside the possibility of the collapse of the European Union, the game is played around these two extremes: either more sharing or greater concessions. In both cases it is necessary to know what ‘this Europe’ really is. Without this, the risk is that of remaining stuck inside the Pinky and the Brain loop.

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