Macron: escaping crises in France one hug at a time

Most of us take a holiday when feeling overwhelmed with work and in dire need of a break from the usual routine. It is an important part of the self-care dogmas which dominate our age. I take them regularly – but most of us are not the French president, Emmanuel Macron. He’s currently in Cairo, um al-dunya (an Arabic nickname for Egypt, meaning “mother of the world”), and on Sunday was roaming the famed Khan el-Khalili market in Cairo with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, receiving a hero’s welcome. Macron was spotted blowing kisses and waving to adoring crowds, walking through the heart of the city like a rock star. He was loving it, and in a post on his social media account – one of many from the trip – the French president thanked the Egyptian people for the “warm welcome”, adding that the energy was a tribute to the friendship between the two countries.

There is an emerging pattern with these bilaterals though and if you look close enough, you’ll see it. Macron tends to embark on these international trips when things go a little pear-shaped in the land of liberté, égalité, fraternité. For example, monsieur Macron is currently facing a rise in popularity of the far right, which threatens to topple his fragile government. This threat comes after Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement and subsequently barred from running for president. Le Pen has received support from right-wing figures across the globe. Macron is now contending with an opposition leader who has likened her inability to run in France's next election to Martin Luther King’s battle against segregation in the 1960s. I should add that this comparison is utterly preposterous.

The official reason for Macron’s trip to Cairo is a trilateral summit on the situation in Gaza with Egyptian and Jordanian leaders, following Israel’s shattering of the ceasefire in the strip last month. France sees itself as a bridge between the west and the Arab world, but the timing of Macron’s visit to the Middle East couldn’t have been worse for him domestically. Macron is also dealing with Trump’s imposition of 20% tariffs on the European Union, which sparked a furious response in Paris. He described the consequences of the tariffs as “massive” and said that they would reverberate across “all sectors” of the economy. Just a few weeks ago, he was reeling after a showdown in the White House between Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, which provoked the realisation that Europe would have to face Russia, with or without US backing.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, was also in Beirut earlier this year, and he looked right at home in the Gemmayzeh neighbourhood – once again giving off the perception that he is a bonafide man of the people. He even received a kiss on camera – don’t worry, it wasn’t French.  

Macron certainly needed the outpouring of love, as his approval rating at home in January when he was in Beirut sank to an all-time low of 21%.

This man of the people mask that Macron puts on whenever he visits the Global South – which, I must admit (and ashamedly so), I sometimes fall for – does occasionally slip off when he loses his cool. 

During a visit to the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, when it was struck by a devastating cyclone at the end of last year, Macron, in a remarkable show of arrogance, blasted a jeering crowd, saying: “If it wasn’t for France, you’d be 10,000 times deeper in shit.” You’d think he just meant it would be worse if Mayotte weren’t a part of France, but he was also implying that Mayotte could end up like the island of Comoros, which voted for independence from France in the 1970s.

The comments were met with accusations of neocolonialism. More than 70% of Mayotte’s population lives below the poverty line – not to say that areas of mainland France don’t experience poverty, but you wouldn’t find 40% of dwellings in Île-de-France made of corrugated sheet metal.

Macron’s mishaps in the Global South aren’t limited to the general population but also extend to its leaders. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi once told Macron at a press conference: “Look at us differently, by respecting us, by considering us as true partners and not always with a paternalistic view, thinking you always know what’s best for us.” This visit came as the French senate was debating Macron’s hugely controversial pension reform laws, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. In the evening, during his trip to Kinshasa, Macron joined Patrick Muyaya, the DRC government spokesperson, and the popular musician Fally Ipupa for a beer – an outing that didn’t go down well, either in the DRC or in France. “Fiddling while Rome burns”, ran the caption on a clip of Macron with them both by Russia Today. 

Back to his Cairo trip – Macron reiterated his call, alongside Jordanian King Abdullah II and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, describing the collapse of the ceasefire as a “dramatic setback for the civilian population.”

So, his visit wasn’t all that bad. To be fair, French foreign policy has been the president’s domain since Charles de Gaulle, while the prime minister focuses on domestic issues. But it cannot be denied that Macron’s visits to the Global South, receiving hugs and kisses from Beirut to Kinshasa, always seem to coincide with political challenges back home. And why face your problems when you can just run from them?