The left voted for this: Macron sips champagne with Dutch liberal leader and royalty as France burns

 

Despite mass protests back home, scenes of extreme police violence, and a slew of critics pointing out France’s slide towards authoritarian rule, French President Emmanuel Macron was welcomed in the Netherlands with open arms this week — in fact, he was the toast of the town. 

 

Macron, dressed in a fine tuxedo, unabashedly clinked champagne glasses with Dutch royalty and the country’s liberal political class in opulent palaces. The video of Macron offers quite the contrast to the proletariat “riff-raff” protesting in the streets and being clobbered by police. He seems to have fully embraced the “let them eat cake” attitude that has long defined his presidency. 

 

 

Recently, a video featuring Macron sliding off a luxury watch in the middle of an interview went viral, which he followed up with high-profile visits to China and the Netherlands. Macron wearing luxury watches, drinking champagne, and saying recently he is “comfortable” being hated may lead some to think these are all gaffes. In fact, much of it seems orchestrated. It has echoes of the “Dark Brandon” meme that the White House reportedly embraced. Certainly, Macron’s foreign visits are a pivot away from domestic trouble — a common move for politicians across the world.

 

🤡Oh! What is it?#Macron was too shy to talk about the need for pension reform while wearing a watch worth 80 thousand euros, but he realized this during an interview on French TV, and took the watch off under the table. pic.twitter.com/KIinWrsDSx

— Matreshka 🌺🇷🇺🇧🇾🇰🇿🇷🇸🇨🇦 (@MatreshkaRF) March 24, 2023

 

Macron is trying to present himself as the strong leader who gets stuff done — with or without democracy. He flexes in luxury watches because he’s the boss cleaning up the mess, and if a few heads get cracked in, well, another glass of champagne is in order. Who is going to stop him? Certainly not his technocrats across the EU. He knows that as long as he embraces the “right” position on immigration and LGBT rights, he will remain firmly in the camp of Brussels and the media establishment, which gives him the cover he needs.

 

Despite all their constant talk about rule of law and “democracy,” the ruling EU political class appears entirely unconcerned with nearly weekly footage of dozens of protesters being beaten to a pulp. The likes of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who greeted Macron warmly in the Netherlands, are not put off one bit that millions of French are protesting Macron’s move to effectively “cancel” democracy and institute a much-hated increase in the pension age from 62 to 64 without a single vote in parliament. Rutte is, by the way, the same leader who called for Hungary to be expelled from the European Union for “rule of law” violations and its stance on LGBT.

 

Is Macron right?

There is, in the end, some truth to Macron’s claims about pension reform and the way he has handled them up until now. The French public voted him into office knowing he would move forward with the reforms, and they also voted him in with full knowledge of how his police forces handled the Yellow Vest protesters. His rival, Marine Le Pen, made it clear she would keep the pension age set at 62 — she has since said she will reverse Macron’s pension reform as well if elected.

 

 

 

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, right, propose a toast as they sit down for a working dinner in front of Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, April 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
 

 

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