Eyeing reelection bid, Macron looks to repair French economy
President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for bringing France out of the pandemic aren’t just about resuscitating long-closed restaurants, boutiques and museums, but about preparing his possible campaign for a second term
May 9, 2021, 6:46 AM
5 min read
FILE - In this April 27, 2021 file photo, French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech prior to a meeting with Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris. With a year to go to the presidential vote, French President Emmanuel Macron is getting ready for a potential re-election bid by prioritizing reviving the economy and saving jobs. The country is slowly stepping out of its partial lockdown. Macron’s ability to meet the challenge will be key _ as France is among countries worst hit by the pandemic in the world, with over 105,000 virus-related deaths. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
PARIS -- President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for bringing France out of the pandemic aren't just about resuscitating long-closed restaurants, boutiques and museums. They are also about preparing his possible campaign for a second term.
A year before the next presidential election, Macron is focusing on saving jobs and reviving the pandemic-battered French economy as his country inches out of its third partial lockdown.
The centrist president's ability to meet the challenge will be significant for his political future and for France — which is among the world's worst-hit nations with the fourth-highest number of reported COVID-19 cases and the eighth-highest death toll at more than 106,000.
While he has not officially declared his candidacy, Macron has made comments suggesting he intends to seek reelection. And he has pushed recent legislation on issues that potential rivals on the right and the left hold dear, from security to climate change.
Pollsters suggest Macron, who four years ago became the youngest president in French history, has a good chance of winning the presidency again in 2022 despite his government’s oft-criticized management of the pandemic and earlier challenges to his policies, from activists protesting what they see as social and economic injustice to unions angry over retirement reforms.
The coronavirus reopening strategy Macron unveiled this month calls for most restrictions on public life to be lifted June 30, when half of France's population is expected to have received at least one vaccine shot. With up to 3 million people in France getting vaccinated each week, the government plans to allow outdoor areas of restaurants and cafes, as well as museums and nonessential shops, to resume operating on May 19.
In an interview with French media, Macron said he would visit France’s regions over the summer “to feel the pulse of the country" and to engage with people in a mass consultation aimed at “turning the page of that moment in the nation’s life.”
“No individual destiny is worthwhile without a collective project,” he said, giving the latest hint about a potential reelection bid.
At the moment, all opinion polls show Macron and Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader he beat in a presidential runoff election in 2017, again reaching the runoff next year. The polls also forecast that Macron would defeat National Rally leader Le Pen again, though by a smaller margin.
Macron, 43, a former economy minister under his predecessor, Socialist President Francois Hollande, has characterized his policies as transcending traditional left-right divides. He was elected on a promise to make the French economy more competitive while preserving the country's welfare system.
Macron’s government includes major figures previously belonging to conservative party The Republicans, including his prime minister and the finance and interior ministers.
French politics expert Luc Rouban, a senior researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research. said the president's immediate goal “is to show he is still able to continue implementing his project, which has more or less been stopped by the health crisis.”
Macron's recent priorities demonstrate he also is trying to attract voters from the moderate right and the moderate left, the same ones who helped him win the first time, Rouban said.
