Biography Flash: Macron's Tightrope - Domestic Gridlock, Global Ambition
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Biography Flash: Macron's Tightrope - Domestic Gridlock, Global Ambition
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Emmanuel Macron has spent the past few days juggling a constitutional tightrope at home and high-stakes power politics abroad, the kind of week biographers underline in red. According to the Official Journal, reported by Prensa Latina and Ukrainian outlet UNN, he has just **signed a special financing law** to keep the French state running into 2026 after parliament failed to pass a full budget, effectively putting France on temporary funding and freezing new spending or tax hikes. This unusual move, used only in moments of severe gridlock, will likely stand out as a symbol of Macron’s late‑presidency domestic weakness and a deeply fragmented political landscape.
At the very same time, he is behaving abroad like a president with decades of runway. France 24, RFI, Reuters and The National in the UAE all report that Macron, visiting French troops in Abu Dhabi for Christmas, **formally green‑lit a new next‑generation aircraft carrier**, a roughly 12‑billion‑dollar flagship set to enter service around 2038 and replace the Charles de Gaulle. Aviation outlet AeroTime and Semafor stress that this is not just a defense upgrade but a generational bet on French and European power projection, and Macron himself framed it as a message for an era “of predators” in which France must be “strong to be feared.” Long term, historians will likely treat this decision as one of his most consequential strategic legacies.
Politically, the backdrop is harsh. AFP, via outlets like The Business Times, reports his **approval rating has slipped to about 25 percent**, the lowest since he took office in 2017, with viewers’ interest in his upcoming New Year address also sagging. Le Monde notes that just days earlier he was in damage‑control mode with angry farmers, meeting union leaders in Paris to calm fury over the planned EU‑Mercosur trade deal and a livestock disease crisis that has sparked roadblocks and manure‑dumping protests. These scenes feed a narrative of a president increasingly boxed in at home even as he chases big‑picture projects abroad.
On foreign policy, CGTN highlights Macron’s ongoing **push for coordinated European recognition of Palestine**, positioning France as a bridge between a more activist Europe and a rising China in Middle East diplomacy. That initiative could, if it sticks, reshape how his role in the Israeli‑Palestinian file is remembered, especially alongside China’s growing involvement.
On social media and in French political chatter, the apparent contradiction is the story: a weakened, unpopular president presiding over emergency budgeting while launching a colossal warship program and staking out bold positions on Palestine and Europe’s place in the world. Commentators are asking whether this is legacy building or overreach; that judgment, for now, is speculation.
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