Emmanuel Macron, surreptitious socialist. The French president, seducer of the right, has embraced big government

The most visible evidence of the president channelling his inner Mitterrand is to be found in his new relationship with the public purse. When the pandemic struck, Mr Macron borrowed a turn of phrase from Mario Draghi, vowing to spend “ quoi qu’il en coûte (whatever it costs)” to fight it. Since then he has, in his own words, “nationalised” wages and firms’ operating accounts, spending ten times more last year to keep firms and furloughed workers going than France ever earned in a year from the old wealth tax.

Macronian handouts have proliferated: €300 ($354) for 18-year-olds to spend on “culture”; an extra €150 for those on benefits; up to €650 a month more for health workers; university meals capped at €1; free breakfasts at schools in deprived areas; free sanitary products for female students; an extra €100 a month for retired low-income farmers—a proposal, incidentally, from none other than the Communists. “We’re catapulting billions” of public money all over the place, declared Adrien Quatennens, a hard-left deputy, as if unable to decide whether to applaud or disapprove.

None of this, of course, is unique to France. Joe Biden’s stimulus plan dwarfs Mr Macron’s. Yet, before the pandemic, France was not only more generous and better at correcting inequality than America (not difficult). As a share of gdp it also outspent all the Nordic countries on social programmes (a lot harder). Mr Macron, in other words, has succeeded in expanding an already highly socialised economy—and in doing so pushed France’s public-debt levels way above the current high European Union average.

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Perhaps such dissonance is what Mr Macron seeks. Ahead of the presidential vote in 2022, France’s centre of political gravity has shifted to the right. This, not the left, is where his toughest competition will come from. Mr Macron’s nod to the left is studiously mild by French class-warrior standards, and in line with his intellectual roots. If anything he is reconnecting not with Mitterrand but Michel Rocard, the Socialist ex-president’s centre-left prime minister and a mentor (among many) to the younger Mr Macron.

If Mr Macron gets no credit for progressive policies, this may also be intrinsic to his project. Vowing to be “neither on the left nor the right”, he is forever caught between inflated expectations on both sides and inbuilt dissatisfaction at the compromises pragmatic politics impose. Such is the lot of the radical centrist. Yet the contradictions may also quite suit a country that thinks it prizes theoretical purity, but is actually often happy to live with messy compromise. Unappreciated progressive, imperfect liberal, implausible conservative: Mr Macron’s policy mix may work well enough in practice, even if not in theory. Vive la France! ■

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