Macron’s Expected Speech Brings Nothing New
EuropeanconservativeJul 25, 2023
French Pres. Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that the country needs to restore order and authority "at every level, firstly in the family," after riots over the police shooting of a teenager of North African descent rocked the country's suburbs last month.
Though the unrest — reportedly rooted in unresolved tensions over controversial policing practices — quickly subsided, some 4K people, including many minors with no criminal records, were arrested.
It's certain that Macron intended to deliver a positive message to an increasingly right-wing public on issues of immigration and security, but using such a conciliatory tone at such a troubled moment may indicate that he is only concerned about maintaining order in the short term. After all, his speech was merely more of the same rhetorical pacification that lacked any significant announcements about how causes of the unrest would be addressed.
Macron has once again bowed to pressure from the far-right. Instead of standing up to right-wing sentiment he has, implicitly, given a blank slate to such groups and legitimized some of their focus on cultural issues, particularly immigration and anti-Muslim sentiment. It's outrageous that the president has spoken out against teenagers protesting an unjust police killing while he remains silent over rising far-right violence across the country.
There's a 40% chance that Emmanuel Macron will dissolve the French National Assembly before the end of his term, according to the Metaculus prediction community.