At Halftime: Emmanuel Macron’s Record in European Politics

Abstract

The study reviews the 2017–2020 European policy of French President Emmanuel Macron. It compares the presidential results to the promises and opinions expressed by the presidential candidate during the campaign, as well as to two clarifying, operationalising speeches he gave in office in 2017. The analysis identifies three major policy nodes: institutional, security and defence, as well as economic policy. The thematic analysis reviews what is already carried out, what is ‘under construction’ and what is stalled or not yet on the European agenda. In the second half of the study, we take a look at the internal and external political resources the French President has or may have in terms of his chances of achieving more. We formulate the conclusion with a very limited consideration of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic of 2020.