In a world riven by populism, Emmanuel Macron makes the affirmative case for centrism.
HE WAS A laughingstock. He was some third-party nobody, breaking away from the Socialists to form his own starry-eyed political movement. French pollsters refused to include him in first-round surveys. François Hollande, the impressively unpopular Socialist president, scoffed at his former economy minister’s candidacy. The populist wave is surging, analysts cried. François Fillon, a former Republican prime minister, would be the next president.
Yet, despite long odds, Emmanuel Macron of the La République En Marche! Party won the presidency in a two-thirds majority over the far-right Marine Le Pen. To be sure, Mr. Macron was considerably lucky. Mr. Fillon was crippled by scandal; the Socialists shot themselves in the foot by nominating the far-left Benoît Hamon over the center-left Manuel Valls; the structure of the French electoral system allowed Socialists and Republicans alike to coalesce around a centrist candidate. But regardless, Mr. Macron’s victory is as remarkable as it is historic.
Mr. Macron is a slightly left-of-center reformist. His platform is prudent: do away with French labor laws that prioritize jobs over workers, cut France’s bloated government payrolls, invest €50 billion in public works projects, and engage with the European Union instead of repudiating it. Thus, Mr. Macron has built a happy political marriage—targeted deregulation from the right and Keynesian public investment from the left. This blog applauds his centrist agenda.
Indeed, Mr. Macron demonstrates how politicians on both sides of the Atlantic can make the affirmative case for centrism. For too long, meek politicos have taken for granted the world order. That includes the post-WWII security apparatus, the international monetary system, a worldwide web of trade arrangements, the United Nations, and the European Union. Hillary Clinton capitulated to the Democrats’ insistence she oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even though she rightly had labeled the trade agreement the “gold standard” in a prior speech. Mr. Macron engaged in no such vacillation. He instead cast himself as the defender of Western liberalism, recognizing and praising the prosperity and geopolitical stability brought about by the post-WWII world order.
The French legislative election, which is held separately from the presidential election, begins next week. For Mr. Macron to be an effective president, he will need to win a parliamentary landslide with his fledgling party. At the very least, he must avoid the interminable gridlock of “cohabitation,” wherein the president and prime minister are of different parties. The Socialists seem eager to form a coalition with Mr. Macron’s party, and even some of the recalcitrant Republicans are beginning to come around.
If Mr. Macron were able to parlay his landmark victory into a successful implementation of his agenda, he would redefine France. But even if he were not able to do this, the political model he has created is a welcome repudiation of populism and anti-globalism—and a much-needed victory for the shrinking middle.
