Over the past year, Emmanuel Macron has worked to project France as a leader in Europe and a formidable presence on the global stage. From his Southeast Asian tour, to his daily calls with the Ukrainian president, to his championing of the Palestinian statehood at the UN Summit, Macron sold the world a “leftist gamble” that would make France a force not to be trifled with. Yet at home, the streets burn with protests. He shamelessly appoints his sixth prime minister—France’s fifth in under two years. Scandals—ranging from cocaine allegations to accusations against his wife—do not dominate the headlines, but their repercussions are undeniable.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s executive orders and frequent press conferences continue to dominate the international news cycle. Whether calling Princess Kate “beautiful” or making an offhand joke at the Charlie Kirk memorial, Trump seems to command headlines with ease. And so, amidst the drama in the United States and the global obsession with accusations of rising fascism, Macron might appear to float above the fray. Yet he quietly stands out as the real source of concern. Could he be the true political failure of the contemporary world?
Emmanuel Macron founded the Renaissance party, a centrist-liberal movement that propelled him to a landslide presidential victory in 2017, whilst in 2022, he became the first French president in two decades to win reelection. But what does central liberalism even mean? In Macron’s case, it is trying to play both sides: the right in the shadows, and the left at the surface.
On the international stage, Macron has sought to present himself as the champion of a democratic, open, and inclusive vision, standing in contrast to Trump’s emphasis on strength and sternness. Following Trump and Zelensky’s meeting at the Oval Office, Macron joined other European leaders in taking to X to voice support for Ukraine. Days later, at an emergency European summit led in part by France, Zelensky called for as many as 200,000 troops to uphold a ceasefire. Yet despite Europe’s firm rhetoric against Trump’s actions, without U.S. support, the continent would struggle to muster even a third of that force. Financially too, the gap was glaring: none of Europe’s powers had pledged even a quarter of the $128 billion already committed by the U.S.. For Macron, as for many of his European counterparts, the display of solidarity amounted largely to posturing.
In late July 2025, Macron boldly announced that France would recognize Palestine as a state. In the days leading up to his formal declaration at the United Nations this past Monday, France appeared to encourage the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Portugal to follow suit. Yet the move carried a layer of irony: Macron framed the recognition as a “defeat for Hamas,” yet, the move played directly into the terrorist group’s hands. Even outlets like CNN noted that the decision was “largely symbolic.” Macron surely understood the limitations, given that the United States’ veto power effectively blocks any path for Palestine to full UN membership. Ultimately, this was far from a meaningful international achievement for the French president.
Most striking, however, is what Macron has failed to achieve domestically. In the 2024 Parliamentary elections, the far-right National Rally secured 31.5% of the vote—more than double the 15.5% garnered by Macron’s Renaissance party. In a bid to regain support, Macron made a historic decision to dissolve Parliament in hopes of improving his party’s standing in a subsequent election. The gamble, as Macron would later admit, backfired: not only did the Renaissance party fail to gain any ground, but it actually lost seats. With no party capturing a majority of the 289 seats and with the legislature fragmented across three primary parties, Macron’s miscalculation left France with a hung Parliament.
Now, Macron was left to manage the fallout. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal resigned following the deadlock, and just three months after his formal departure, his successor Michel Barnier also stepped down—becoming the shortest-serving prime minister in French history, as well as the first since 1962 to be ousted by a no-confidence vote. Macron’s next choice, longtime centrist ally François Bayrou, fared little better: after nine months in office, 364 lawmakers voted against him with only 194 in support.
Most recently, Macron appointed Sébastien Lecornu, a move that may prove the breaking point for the French public. On September 10th, mass demonstrations known as the “Block Everything” protests erupted across France, particularly in Paris. While broadly aimed at inequality, the protests focused on Bayrou’s previously proposed budget cuts and served as a warning to Lecornu not to follow the same path. The irony was once again striking: the majority of demonstrators identified as leftists, yet Macron himself has long portrayed himself as a standard-bearer of liberal ideals. If neither the right nor the left trusts him to lead France forward, the question of Macron’s continued legitimacy becomes unavoidable.
Macron’s gravest failure, however, may be the steady erosion of his reputation as a trustworthy and respectable leader. In May alone, three viral moments amplified his image as weak and embattled. Early in the month, a video circulated of Macron appearing to conceal a tissue just as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer entered a room; the video prompted a storm of conspiracy theories, including baseless drug allegations. The French government was forced to issue a public denial, calling the rumors manipulative propaganda. Days later, another video showed Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, gripping Macron’s finger in a clear power play while Macron stood visibly uneasy. By month’s end, footage of Brigitte Macron (already a tabloid target and involved in a lawsuit over defamatory claims about her gender) slapping her husband’s hand away went viral, though Macron dismissed it as a mere “squabble.”
Only yesterday, Macron was filmed being forced to phone Donald Trump after being blocked by the president’s motorcade. Each incident, which the French government has consistently tried to downplay, builds a pattern. The repeated inability to avoid ridicule and humiliation has left the image of Emmanuel Macron persistently diminished in the public eye. He will never embody 21st-century leadership, as these enduring videos serve as lasting reminders of his incompetence.
Reflecting on Macron’s 2022 re-election after the dissolution of Parliament, Stéphane Rozès, a pollster who has worked for three French presidents, remarked, “He ran on fear of the war in Ukraine and of the far right, but he never forged a true contract with the French people.” Amid the height of the Iran–Israel conflict, President Trump bluntly declared that Emmanuel Macron “always gets it wrong.”
While the world was glued to the U.S. president, watching—and even hoping—that America might falter under Trump’s leadership, few noticed what had already transpired across the Atlantic: France had undeniably collapsed, and Macron alone bore the blame.
