Emmanuel Macron cut a sombre figure in the vast, sepulchral Panthéon during a ceremony to inter a former French justice minister this week.
It was a stark reminder of the president’s increased isolation as former allies turn against him and his popularity plummets in the midst of a political turmoil for which he is largely being blamed.
The late minister Robert Badinter was “criticised, attacked, mocked, vilified, insulted, abused, even hated” for his life’s work to abolish the death penalty and legalise homosexuality, Macron said in his speech on Thursday, perhaps seeing some parallels with his own situation.
The death of Macronism has been predicted before. However, after a week of chaos – with Sébastien Lecornu being reappointed as prime minister on Friday evening less than a week after resigning – it has become increasingly clear that France’s near-decade long experiment with Macron’s form of insurgent centrist politics is coming to an end.
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“This is the end of Macron. He has lost all credibility,” said an adviser to the right-wing Les Républicains party, which on Monday triggered Lecornu’s resignation when it pulled out of his government. “First we will see the end of his political system, and then of him as a character.”
Anti-presidential sentiment is a routine feature of French political life. Macron’s predecessor François Hollande, a socialist politician who lasted only one term in office, was even more hated than the current president.
But aside from his popularity sliding, Macron’s legacy is also at risk as his parliamentary bloc has fractured, and allies have opened the door to halting some of his main economic policies, such as raising the retirement age to 64.
“What is le Macronisme? It’s a liberal economic policy, a very pro-European stance, it’s a will to reform our country, it’s pretty firm on security,” said Charles Rodwell, an MP from Macron’s Renaissance party. “If we decide to pull back and to abandon the pensions reform, it’s like giving up part of our identity.”
Macron’s attempt to redefine French politics could prove as fleeting as his rise was meteoric.
Macron’s ascent to the top job in 2017 “broke the classic political alternation between the right and left in France”, said a person close to the president. “Was that a 10-year parenthesis, or will we have a political life that is split in three in the long term?”
Whether his movement and its policy record endure “will be up to history to judge”, the person said.
Back in 2017, the former Rothschild banker won the presidency despite having previously held no elected office and only having served one term as Hollande’s economy minister. His disrupter approach pulled talent from both the centre-left and the centre-right, and the private sector. Young people signed up to campaign for him in droves, bringing a generation of fresh faces into government.
Now Macron’s centrist alliance of three parties is falling apart while the parties on the centre-left and centre-right are deeply divided over whether to provide the support it needs to govern. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National is casting itself as a stable force ready to govern.
Macron’s own camp “does not show signs of good health”, admitted François Patriat, a Renaissance senator. “It’s a lamentable spectacle. The parties are tearing themselves apart. The problem isn’t at the Élysée, it’s parliament. They can’t compromise, so they’re demanding the resignation of the president.”
Le Pen and far-left opposition parties who have long called for Macron’s resignation were joined this week by his former prime minister and presidential hopeful Édouard Philippe, who told Le Figaro that the crisis was threatening “the authority and stability of the state”.
Macron, whose term runs until 2027, has always said he will serve out his mandate.
Gabriel Attal, another former protege of Macron whose premiership was cut short by the president’s decision to call early parliamentary elections last year, said he “no longer understood the president’s decisions”.
Macron’s two terms in office have been marked by multiple crises, from the antigovernment gilets jaunes protests in 2018 to the economic and social woes of the Covid-19 pandemic and his deeply unpopular pensions overhaul.
But the current turmoil can be traced back to his failed wager last year to dissolve the National Assembly in a bid to stem the rise of Le Pen’s party, which had just won in European Parliament elections. The snap vote cost Macron’s bloc its ability to govern and pass budgets, and strengthened the far right.
As his influence on domestic politics has diminished, Macron has thrown himself into diplomacy on issues including European defence, Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza. He hosted Arab and European foreign ministers in Paris this week to discuss Gaza’s postwar reconstruction. He brokered the first meeting between newly re-elected US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral in December.
But the current mood within Macron’s own camp was described as “bleak” this week following Lecornu’s resignation. Cabinet aides and advisers are sending out CVs as they look for jobs in the private sector, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. “The 2024 dissolution was stupid and annoying – but people felt it was important and a duty to campaign, especially against the far right. Now that energy has leached away,” said an outgoing cabinet adviser.
[ Can Emmanuel Macron stop France unravelling?Opens in new window ]
The president was seen this week walking along the banks of the Seine, a lone figure in black with a phone glued to his ear. People close to him said he remained resolute, focused on the need to adopt the 2026 budget and optimistic about finding a way out of the current impasse, though saddened by the state of France.
Supporters hail this as a strength. “The president is a warrior; he will go all the way to save what he can of the reforms, of what he built,” said Renaissance MP Karl Olive.
His camp is still hopeful that against all odds a deal will be done. Perhaps that is the most Macronist trait of all: a relentless confidence – even in the face of history, obstacles, naysayers and errors – that a path forward can be forged.
“It is a sad sight, but somewhere there is still a possibility that there is light shining out of this darkness,” said the person close to the president. “It is only at the end of the ball that the orchestra gets paid.”
But others see an overconfident and increasingly detached president who imposes his solutions despite mounting evidence they do not work. “It’s a huge mess; meanwhile the court around the president is keeping him optimistic ... It’s a disaster,” said a former adviser.
“I think Macron himself has no idea what he’s going to do: he’s navigating blind,” said a French executive. “Let’s hope it’s not the Titanic.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
