The Importance of Ideology

European Straits #103

Dear all,

Two years ago, before Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France, I criticized his refusal to take an ideological stand. Now the results of that refusal are coming into view.

For me, Macron’s winning wasn’t impeded by the ambiguous line he decided to draw between “looking backward” and “looking forward”, disregarding any ideological references on either the left or the right. However, “his ability to govern”, as I then wrote in the French magazine L’Obs, would “depend on a clearer strategic positioning over the long term. Without a left-right divide, Macron will be a progressive but technocratic president, with no leeway to act because of his being constantly torn between the two sides of the spectrum. Only if he draws a new dividing line in a recomposed political landscape will he have a powerful ideological lever to resolve the conflicts that undermine French society”.

As of now this has all been made even clearer by the ‘Yellow Vests’ crisis. And so I recently revived t…