Emmanuel Macron went to the complicated East with simplistic ideas. He showed them on television, just before embarking. To the French, dismayed by the scale of the weekend’s riots, he blandly explained that their end-of-month problems were rooted in the Persian Gulf conflict and that he was going there to secure our oil and gas supplies. He ordered the prefects to manage the disorder which he deplores with the strongest words (shame, anger, factiousness, etc.) but which he questions with disarming candor: “How can French people do this to France? » Then, he went to Orly where the court was waiting aboard the presidential plane. After the orgy in which tens of thousands of looters indulged, the State displays its inconsistency. At ten thousand feet, its leader sleeps.
Ten years is enough
General de Gaulle continued his state visit to Romania in May 1968. To Ceausescu, he proposed a “third way”: the independence of nations facing the hegemony of the two blocs (the American and the Soviet, not the Chinese!) Such an ambitious plan was well worth devoting four days to it. He was acclaimed in Bucharest and Craiova while he was reviled at the Sorbonne. France realized that “Ten years is enough.” The Commander’s statue stood in the distance, but the general was on the ground.
Emmanuel Macron has just traveled through the petromonarchies with less ambition, a jerry can in hand. In the free-for-all for hydrocarbons that Donald Trump’s war triggered, France came begging for a little more diesel. In exchange, it offers protection for its weapons against Iranian attacks. The Rafales stationed in Abu Dhabi already contribute to the defense of the emirate. The proposed reinforcements will secure the Fujairah terminal on the Gulf of Oman through which the United Arab Emirates bypasses the Strait of Hormuz and which the Iranians regularly bomb. Similar air defense systems have already been allocated to the Saudis for their Red Sea terminal targeted by the Houthis.
Who listens to the president of a country that keeps neither its accounts nor its suburbs?
France promises the Arabs to protect them and that no one will be drawn into the American war. A magic formula. At the beginning of the summer, with France, around twenty countries declared themselves “ready to contribute to efforts to support the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz”. Ready to intervene but… after the war. We want weapons so as not to fight. Emmanuel Macron likes manly postures, but for parading.
Stolen !
The Middle East remains a major consumer of 24-hour news channels which broadcast images of France abandoned to the rioters. We can imagine their impact. We know the compassion shown by local police towards opponents of the regime. The unfortunate example set by the Iranian revolution has never been forgotten. The rare beginnings of riots are drowned in blood. President Macron was received with redoubled attention. The red carpet that was rolled out under his feet was triple thick. The influence of France is inversely proportional. No matter how much she gesticulates, she is no longer able to influence the course of events. Who listens to the president of a country that keeps neither its accounts nor its suburbs?
On the eve of this fatal weekend, the president danced with his family at a Celine Dion concert. She sang Fly. It was prophetic. He must have meditated on the headline title: “I have to go. In another world, in another life. And too bad for this one! »
