

Emmanuel Macron: Five ways he is not very French

Geoff Winestock
Geoff WinestockNSW Political Editor

Emmanuel Macron, just 39, who is now almost certain to win the French presidency, does not conform to a lot of the stereotypes Australians have of the French and their politics. Here are a few examples of how he might break the mold:

1. He is a free trader

For a Frenchman, Macron is a big fan of globalisation. During the election campaign he was the only candidate who spoke in favour of a highly controversial free trade agreement with Canada which increased market access into the European Union for Canadian wheat and beef. Right before a highly contested vote in the European Parliament in February he said the deal with Canada "struck the right balance".

The problem for free trade in France has always been that the left opposes free trade instinctively and the right relies too heavily on conservative rural votes to open up agricultural markets. But Macron has built a centrist urban support base that exclude the farmers. This means he can make concessions on agricultural imports. It is early days but a Macron victory can only be good news for the Australian-EU free trade agreement that is currently being negotiated.

Emmanuel Macron as results of the first round of the French presidential election are projected. Bloomberg

2. He backs labour market deregulation


France is famous for the 35-hour week and labour market rules which discourage hiring and keep the unemployment rate over 8 per cent even in boom times. During his stint as economics minister from 2014 to 2016, however, Macron pushed through a Keating-esque law which bears his name that made some baby steps towards taking apart this system. He tried to introduce enterprise bargaining rather than national awards, made it easier to sack workers, and liberalised Sunday trading.

The measures faced a huge backlash from unions and the Socialist Party to which he then belonged. Some were wound back. But he said during the campaign he wants to try again. Under the French system, this will require the support of the new parliament which will be elected in two months time and a government willing to brave inevitable union protests. As an independent, Macron lacks a strong party of his own so he will need to cobble together a coalition of the right and the left. It won't be easy and he could easily fail.

3. He speaks English well

French presidents can mostly get by in English but they try to hide it. Macron, however, a former investment banker for Rothschild & Cie, has often given interviews on the BBC in English and is probably more popular with English publications like the Financial Times and The Economist than with the French press. He has shown none of the 1960s Gaullist preciousness about defending French as a global language.

4. He wants to cut the size of the government

The public sector represents 55 per cent of French Gross Domestic Product and it used to be that working as a public servant was a Frenchman's dream job. But the euro-zone debt crisis has helped build support for fixing France's budget which has not been in surplus since 1974.


Macron who is determined to make the euro work has promised to cut public service numbers by 120,000 and cut the public sector by 3 per cent of GDP. It is brave but not all that brave. His proposed cuts were less dramatic than those of the centre-right candidate Francois Fillon. Even those cuts will be hard to achieve and highly contested.

5. He has apologised for France's colonial past

Macron took a big gamble during the campaign on a visit to France's former colony of Algeria where he described France's behaviour in its colonies as a "crime against humanity". It was partly a political strategy to appeal to the left and France's large Muslim Maghrebin electorate. But it breaks with France's condescending view of itself as a beacon of world culture. It remains to be seen how this might translate into Macron's foreign policy which is where the French presidency has most constitutional power.

Macron poses with fast food employees: He partially deregulated Sunday trading. AP

Macron, right, at a press conference with the mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Eric Feferberg

Geoff Winestock writes on News specialising in Politics, Economy, Policy. Based in our Sydney newsroom, Geoff covers NSW politics. Connect with Geoff on Facebook and Twitter. Email Geoff at