Are the French willing to pay Macron’s price?

The age of abundance is over, declared Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, which must have come as news to the 14 per cent of French people who live below the poverty line.

The president has returned to the office after his summer break seemingly intent on bracing the Republic for a winter of discomfort, caused largely by the effect of western sanctions on Russia after their invasion of Ukraine six months ago.

Last Friday he told the French in Churchillian tones to accept that rising energy and food bills were the ‘price of liberty’, and he returned to the theme yesterday when he addressed his ministers. ‘Our system based on freedom in which we have become used to living, sometimes when we need to defend it, it can entail making sacrifices,’ said Macron. ‘This overview that I’m giving — the end of abundance, the end of insouciance, the end of assumptions — it’s ultimately a tipping point that we are going through.’

Macron’s remarks were swiftly criticised by the left. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the NUPEs coalition, described them as ‘indecent’, adding: ‘To hear something like that is unbelievable. He doesn't realise how hurtful it can be to people. He still hasn't got off his jet ski. We are in a country where there are nine million poor people. For his friends, the rich, abundance continues.’

The jet ski reference was a dig at the photos that were published earlier this month of Macron frolicking on the waves during his holiday. One NUPE MP, Sandrine Rousseau, accused the president of indulging in ‘criminally’ harmful behaviour to the environment. It was surely no coincidence that a few days later the government mooted the idea of banning private jets. The left’s response was one of scepticism; Macron, this ‘president of the rich’, would never dream of upsetting his own kind.

But Macron seems to take a perverse delight in insulting those lower down the social scale, which is why millions of French – from the left and the right – agree with Mélenchon’s assessment of the president as a man without empathy.

Since he came to power five and a half years ago Macron has regularly disparaged the French, describing them as a nation of ‘slackers’, ‘Resistant Gauls’, and ridiculing one unemployed young man who during a walkabout told his president he couldn’t find any work.

Then there was his boast at the start of this year about wishing to ‘emmerder’ the millions of French who didn’t want to submit to a first or third vaccine.

Not only is Macron light on empathy but his self-awareness leaves a lot of be desired. He talks glibly of defending liberty but he didn’t seem so keen on the idea last year when he removed the freedom of his people to play sport, visit their families or dine out as he brought in his Covid passport.

Throughout the Covid crisis there were accusations in the West of one set of rules for the rich and powerful, and another for the rest; politicians continued to party or jet off across the world on trade missions, and the unmasked Great and the Good were seen attending glamorous events where they were served by masked serving staff.

Will there be the same social apartheid this winter as the cost-of-living crisis really starts to kick in? Macron wants his people to make a sacrifice in the name of liberty, but will he lead by example? The bill to heat the Elysée must be immense (although probably not as much as the £540,000 spent by the Macrons on flowers) so there is plenty of scope to economise.

Across the West presidents and prime ministers are asking their people to be stoic in the defence of liberty, just as they asked them to draw on their resilience during the pandemic. But patience is wearing thin and this winter we will see if the people are prepared to once again pay up in the name of liberty.