A person holds a cut-out depicting French President Emmanuel Macron during a demonstration to protest against the new French Prime Minister and his government at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, on Sept. 21.Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron’s “non-official” visit to Canada this week will not go down as even remotely memorable. His 24-hour stopover had all the markings of a hastily arranged courtesy call.
There were no diplomatic earthquakes to match Charles de Gaulle’s “Vive le Québec libre!” declaration in 1967, which plunged Canada-France relations into the freezer for years. Nor was there anything like the minor diplomatic incident that occurred when, in 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy broke with France’s then-longstanding official policy of “non-interference and non-indifference” regarding Quebec’s political future by making a plea in favour of federalism.
In truth, no French president in the history of the Fifth Republic has seemed less personally invested in the Quebec question than Mr. Macron. Like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with whom he shares a flare for the dramatic, he is a multilateralist, unsympathetic to nationalist sentiment. He is more interested in expanding trade with the rest of Canada than flattering les cousins Québécois.
While Mr. Macron dined leisurely with Mr. Trudeau at Rideau Cottage on Wednesday night before meeting with the Prime Minister on Thursday morning, he was only scheduled to hold a short tête-à-tête with Quebec Premier François Legault at his Montreal office – rather than in la capitale nationale of Quebec City – before flying home. Quebec politicians were somewhat miffed that he did not take the time to address the National Assembly.
At the very least, Mr. Macron’s visit provided the embattled Mr. Trudeau – whose minority government survived a confidence vote only hours before the French President landed in Ottawa – with a precious photo opportunity as the two leaders posed in front of the Prime Minister’s residence. Their personal chemistry – they addressed each other in French with the familiar “tu” rather than the more formal “vous” – allowed Mr. Trudeau to remind Canadians of his world-stage credentials.
Mr. Macron’s detour to Canada – after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this week – was primarily intended to make good on an old promise after he cancelled an official visit that had been planned for July. The trip, repeatedly postponed since 2021, got scrapped after Mr. Macron dissolved France’s parliament in the wake of his party’s drubbing in June’s European elections. Instead of a joint meeting of the Canadian and French cabinets, as initially promised, this week’s visit was a bare-bones affair devoid of major announcements or ceremonial bells and whistles.
Indeed, the idea of a joint meeting of their respective cabinets was rendered moot by the battering Mr. Macron’s coalition experienced in France’s July 7 legislative elections. The vote produced a hung parliament, though France’s far-right National Rally has effectively been calling the political shots in recent weeks, leaving Mr. Macron with a tenuous grip on power.
After two months of negotiations, Mr. Macron finally named former European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as Prime Minister earlier this month. The 73-year-old Mr. Barnier is a onetime Macron rival who ran for the presidential nomination of France’s main centre-right Les Républicains party in 2021.
His appointment as Prime Minister was aimed at appeasing far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Her National Rally, which holds the third-largest block of seats in the National Assembly, has agreed (for now) not to support the left-wing New Popular Front on a confidence motion aimed at defeating the Barnier government that the NPF plans to table next week.
In exchange for Ms. Le Pen’s tacit support, Mr. Barnier last week unveiled a new right-leaning cabinet that had the French left claiming a “stolen” election. He named fellow Républicains politician and anti-immigration hardliner Bruno Retailleau to the pivotal Interior Ministry, presaging a crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers – provided Mr. Barnier’s government lasts long enough.
Mr. Barnier must table a budget by early next month, and it is unclear whether he will win enough National Assembly votes to pass it. France’s deficit has spiralled out of control, with a budget shortfall slated to top 6 per cent of gross domestic product next year without major spending cuts or tax increases.
Members of the New Popular Front, meanwhile, have begun impeachment proceedings against Mr. Macron under a constitutional procedure known in French as la destitution. While the motion has little chance of obtaining the two-thirds vote required to pass the National Assembly, polls show strong public support for removing Mr. Macron from office before his term ends in 2027. Thousands of protesters chanted “Macron destitution” at demonstrations held across France after Mr. Barnier unveiled his cabinet.
Indeed, Mr. Macron and Mr. Trudeau had plenty to commiserate about this week. Both leaders have gone from hero to zero at home. Their respective electorates are impatient to see them go. One of them – or both – could soon be gone.