New French President Macron’s principal challenge will be halting the advance of the Right. This will require acceleration of economic growth, defeat of Islamic terrorism, and new politics that appeals to the youth
The focus on Emmanuel Macron’s dramatic rise has obscured the fact that he is not the only outsider who has ascended to power in France, or for that matter, in history. It is important to reflect on their cases as the impact of successful outsiders on their country and the world has not invariably been positive. Outsiders have generally come to power in times of national crisis when either the existing system of governance has become incapable of delivering or the established political leaders and parties have lost the confidence of a large majority of people. This can be clearly seen in the case of France itself which has seen at least two outsiders emerging as heads of Government.
One of them, Charles de Gaulle, was perhaps not entirely an outsider. He was leader of Free France (1940-44) when he, based in Britain, had led the French resistance to German occupation of his country. From 1944 to 1946, he was the head of the provisional Government of French Republic. He resigned in 1946, disgusted by petty partisan politics which had almost become the hallmark of his country's politics. He then set up the Rassemblement du Peuple Français or Rally of the French People (RPF).
De Gaulle resigned from RPF and retired from politics in 1953 and wrote three volumes of war memoirs, published in 1954, 1956 and 1959, which have come to be regarded as classics of modern French literature. It was the coup in Algeria 1958 by French soldiers and settlers aimed at forestalling the country’s independence from France (granted eventually in 1962) and the threat of being carried over to France itself, that the French National Assembly brought him back to power. The rest, including his founding of the Fifth French Republic, is history.
The other outsider to rise to power in France before Macron, was Napoleon Bonaparte. The immediate cause was the war between France on one hand and an alliance of Austria, Prussia and Savoy and an army of French exiles on the other. The latter were subsequently joined by Britain, the Netherlands and Spain. The war had momentous consequences for France. The military reverses that followed initial successes led to the fall of the Girondins, a loose collection of Republican politicians who were behind the declaration of war to spread the revolution but were vacillating in the matter of ending the French monarchy, and the rise of Jacobins under Maximilien de Robespierre, the architect of the reign of terror which lasted from September 5, 1793, to July 27, 1794.
The rule of The Directory (1795-99) that followed was not without achievements — recovery of the French economy devastated by the Reign of Terror, the success of French armies abroad and the creation of grandes écoles a system of elite centralised schools. Its popularity, however, was undermined by widespread corruption and was eventually overthrown by a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte, who was come to be regarded a hero because of his military exploits, with the support of the army. By 1800, he had become First Consul of France and wielded total power over the country. His crowning as emperor followed as a matter of course.
Outside France, it was serious reverses against Hitler’s armies at the start of World War II that brought Winston Churchill, till then languishing in the wilderness of British politics to power. The Great Depression that begun in 1929 and its consequences was the most immediate and important of the circumstances that had led Hitler, who had been a fringe player for a long time, being appointed Reichskanzler (Chancellor of the Reich) on January 30, 1933.
What are the circumstances that brought Macron to powerIJ There was immense resentment against the existing political system and political leaders caused by a number of factors — sluggish economic growth, high unemployment rates, austerity measures, the rise of anti-globalisation sentiments, social tension caused, among other things, by large-scale influx of refugees, and the rise of Islamic terrorism and the terror strikes in France.
All this could have led to the election of Macron’s opponent, Marine le Pen, the ultra-Right campaign. That did not happen because a very sizeable majority of the French, whose commitment to the values of tolerance, faith in human rights (which influences their attitude to immigrants and refugees), tolerance, opposition to racism and discriminatory policies, date back to the French Revolution with its call for liberty, equality and fraternity.
Macron shunned the extreme right, stood for the values described above and, despite having been President François Hollande’s Economy Minister, retained an outsider image. It was as late as November last year that he became a candidate for presidency; he had no party nor any clear-cut political agenda. If his helped to project him as not being a part of France’s political stable, so did his unconventional life-style, including marriage to his former school teacher, M Brigitte Macron, 24-years his senior, and his cultivation of France’s civil society.
The instances cited above show that the rise of outsiders to power can have very different consequences. De Gaulle, his megalomania and irritating ways notwithstanding, saved France from civil war and chaos, and put it on the path of political stability and economic recovery. On the face of it, Napoleon’s role was disastrous. He plunged Europe in almost unceasing and bloody warfare and brought defeat and disaster to France. Yet his campaigns led to the spread of Code Napoleon of the Napoleonic Code wherever his authority extended. Its basis was reason and sublimated common sense not on ancient custom or monarchical sanction. It provided for the equality of all male citizens, ended primogeniture, hereditary nobility, ecclesiastical control over civilian institutions, and declared what are now regarded as basic human freedoms, as fundamental principles. If this severely undermined the earlier feudal, ecclesiastical and monarchical systems of jurisprudence, his overthrow of European monarchies paved the way for the rise of democratic order, albeit following a torturous and prolonged struggle lasting, in some cases, for more than a century.
One need not labour the consequences of Adolf Hitler’s rise which constitutes one of the darkest chapters of history. As for Churchill, his biggest contribution was ensuring Hitler’s defeat, which saved Europe if not the whole world. That alone ensures him a place in history his murky role as an imperialist notwithstanding.
If Macron is successful, his principal achievement will be halting the advance of the French Right which, though defeated, still breathes fire. This will require acceleration of economic growth, defeat of Islamic terrorism, harmonious integration of immigrants and asylum-seekers and, of course, introduction of a brand of politics that appeals to the France’s young. It is a tall order and he requires luck.
(The writer is Consultant Editor of The Pioneer and an author)