If there’s one thing that can be said about French President Emmanuel Macron is that he has mastered the art of political survival.
His presidency has been marked by a relentless succession of crises, and – from the Yellow Vests and the Pension reform protests, Pandemic Lockdowns, Racial Riots, unchecked mass migration and deteriorating quality of life – Macron has survived it all.
But perhaps this moment of his plagued second presidential mandate is the biggest challenge yet.
His abilities as an ‘escape artist’ will be tested to the max as he tries an impossibly delicate balancing act – scrambling to gain the conservative vote, while not losing his Globalist-Liberal clout.
Impossible, many will say – and it sure seems that way as he puts his show on the road.
He faces a world of criticism from across the political spectrum, accused of ‘poaching from the hard-right playbook’.
His sleight of hand is: first appointing Gabriel Attal, 34, the country’s youngest – and first openly gay – prime minister, a former socialist. While they looked at the shining object, Macron named a government that shifted heavily into conservative territory.
PM Attal has had a rocky start, with eight of the 14 new ministers from the centre-right opposition Les Républicains party, including the culture minister, Rachida Dati.
New education minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, is in the hot seat for having sent her three children to a private Catholic school in Paris.