Loud have been the ululations after the victory of President Emmanuel Macron’s Republique en Marche in the second round of elections to the French National Assembly last Sunday. If his greatest admirers are to be believed, Mr Macron has saved France, the European Union, even the world – in the sense that he is said to have stopped the tide of Trumpian populism, hoisting a banner of optimistic centrism, as if to declare to the aggressors, as did his countrymen at Verdun in the Great War, “Ils ne passeront pas!”
“Macron’s meteoric rise lifts confidence in the EU,” declares the Financial Times. “This late cresting wave of enthusiasm has given the Fifth Republic… a new lease of life,” opines Foreign Affairs, noting that many had “feared that France was about to succumb to the same furies that had led British citizens to turn their backs on the European Union and American voters to elect Donald Trump.” The latest issue of the Economist carries a photo montage of Mr Macron walking on water, and suggests he may be in a position to save Europe and transform France.
Quite something for the neophyte leader – if it were all true. But it’s not.
Firstly, Mr Macron represents no return to reassuring normality. How can he, when he is a force of disruption himself? He rose on the coattails of the last president, Francois Hollande, as his deputy chief of staff and later economy minister, before spectacularly turning on his benefactor - and sinking any chance he had of a second term in the Elysee – by announcing his own candidacy as an independent.
Mr Macron has never been elected to any office before the presidency, and this is an entirely new party that has been formed. REM may offer plenty of hope, but what does “neither left nor right” really mean? Likewise, bringing fresh faces into the country’s parliament sounds attractive, but according to reports so many will be new to the National Assembly – 91 per cent of incoming REM deputies – that they have all been told to attend a two-day training session on how to be a legislator.
They are untested. Many have little awareness of what their party’s programme is, apart from it serving to support Mr Macron. If his movement is not fuelled by the same kind of populism as Mr Trump’s, it shares the same desire to break with and break up the old establishment. So this is not back to normal. It is another victory for "outsiders".
Secondly, there has been much talk of Mr Macron’s overwhelming mandate. It is true that in the presidential election he triumphed over Marine Le Pen by 30 percentage points; although for a National Front candidate to win 35 per cent of the is nothing for Mr Macron’s team to boast about. Why didn’t he crush a contender whose party is treated with revulsion by much of the world?
It is also true that in the National Assembly Mr Macron’s alliance (of REM with Francois Bayrou’s MoDem) has a commanding majority, with at least 350 seats out of 577. But if Francois Hollande broke records for the lowest approval ratings in the history of the Fifth Republic, Mr Macon’s parliamentary victory has been won through another record – for the lowest turnout in legislative elections in the same period.
In the first round only 45 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots which, as Foreign Policy also notes, means that REM’s 32 percent translated to “less than 15 percent of France’s registered voters” endorsing the party En Marche as their first choice.
In the second round the turnout was even lower, at 43 percent. It may have been that the Socialists performed abysmally, and the right wing Republicans lost almost half their deputies. But if Macron was truly the great unifying force for change his boosters say, then surely huge numbers of people would have rushed to the polls to cast their ballots for him. Instead, they stayed at home.
Early indications are that amongst that majority of non-voters were the large working class constituency that supported populists of left and right – Jean-Luc Melenchon as well as Ms Le Pen – in the presidential election, but who subsequently felt so disenfranchised, and that the “system” was so rigged against them, that they gave up. This is deeply troubling, and augurs trouble ahead for Mr Macron, his government, and the French state itself; for those who lose trust in the ballot box are more likely to turn to direct action and challenge the legitimacy of democratic institutions.
The two points taken together also point to any suggestion that this vote means the tide of Trumpery has been turned being dangerous nonsense. One could argue that the legislative elections should lead one to conclude instead that the Macron miracle has in fact dissipated in a remarkably short time.
So disruption is still the new norm. Expect the unexpected. Any who are taking false comfort from this result are sadly deluded. For after the people have spoken, it turns out that the majority were so unenthused by the candidates on offer that they preferred to condemn them with silence. That does not sound like a man who can walk on water to me.
Despite all this, if Mr Macron can indeed deliver salvation for France and Europe, he will have earned both his mandate and the laurels that have been prematurely bestowed upon him. Until then, it would be perverse to see hope in a verdict that indicates the hopelessness of most of the French people.
Sholto Byrnes is a senior fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
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COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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The Transfiguration
Director: Michael O’Shea
Starring: Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine
Three stars
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
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Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Keep it fun and engaging
Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES International, says children cannot learn something overnight, so it helps to have a fun routine that keeps them engaged and interested.
“I explain to my daughter that the money I draw from an ATM or the money on my bank card doesn’t just magically appear – it’s money I have earned from my job. I show her how this works by giving her little chores around the house so she can earn pocket money,” says Mr Ritchie.
His daughter is allowed to spend half of her pocket money, while the other half goes into a bank account. When this money hits a certain milestone, Mr Ritchie rewards his daughter with a small lump sum.
He also recommends books that teach the importance of money management for children, such as The Squirrel Manifesto by Ric Edelman and Jean Edelman.
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More from Neighbourhood Watch:
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
