Next year’s European elections are clearly a matter of life and death for Macron. In a country where the president is more often than not the punching bag for every failed decision – like labor reforms. Macron is attempting to stay ahead of the issue by creating new ones while his own party is not a positive choice for many voters.
But Macron is right that he should solidify his loose camp while Germany is dealing with its own problems. While Merkel’s overly strong personality virtually guarantees a political crisis there, Macron has found the solution in building the opposition of the opposition.
The future European Union will be nothing like it is now. This is the old world, with a belt of poor countries allowed to join the richer fifteen countries, for whom Austria used to be the unattainable ideal.
But an entire generation has grown up since. It no longer makes any sense to govern a country – let alone the entire Union – along the methods and principles of the 1990s. It is time to cater for the demands of the people – the people for whom the Union was established in the first place.
Some bureaucrats in Strasbourg and Brussels may think they belong to a hereditary elite but those who think so are unfit for their positions and will only ruin the European community. And this is the essence of the “opposition of the opposition”. The idea is to brand anyone with their eyes open as radicals, those who do not want to give up their traditions, safety or state for the unattainable ideal of a Union without nations.
As a result, Macron positions himself against these forces, without representing any actual values but going against other values. This may be the easy way, but it is also the less efficient one. Because – let’s face it – liberal ideology is losing its appeal in Western Europe and even these self-appointed leaders sprinkle their speeches with nationalist overtones. They don’t really believe in these false ideals, only want to look good in television debates.
Macron’s number one ally is Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, leading a barely functional four-party coalition without any real claim of actual popular support. This is the opposition of the opposition, always reacting, but never stating, who have been divorced from reality for too long and think that they are entitled to their positions.
But these positions have to be earned, and not by presenting a nicely wrapped bottle of whisky to Juncker. These positions have to be earned by getting votes at home. By fighting – Hungarian for Hungarian, French for French. Because without a country all this would be for nothing.
