Revolution Française
Emmanuel Macron and the quest to reinvent a nation
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- €14.99
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- €14.99
Publisher Description
The extraordinary story of how an outsider candidate – an unknown technocrat and economics minister on the fringes of French politics – made his way to the Élysée palace, with new material and expert analysis of recent events including the gilets jaunes protests.
Two years after Emmanuel Macron came from nowhere to seize the French presidency, Sophie Pedder, The Economist's Paris bureau chief, tells the story of his remarkable rise and time in office so far. In this updated edition, published with a new foreword, Pedder revisits her analysis of Macron's troubles and triumphs in the light of the gilets jaunes protests.
Eighteen months after he led his own audacious insurgency against France's established parties Macron would face another popular insurrection. This time, he was the target. In her vivid account, Pedder analyses the first real political crisis of Macron's tenure, how the movement emerged on roundabouts and in cyberspace, its impact on his plans to transform France, and the repercussions for representative democracy.
On the eve of important European elections, and with nationalist and populist forces rising across the continent, she considers whether Macron can still hope to hold the centre ground, work with Germany to rebuild post-Brexit Europe, and defend the multilateral liberal order.
Meticulously researched, enriched by interviews with the French president, and written in Pedder's gripping and immensely readable style, this is the essential, authoritative account for anyone wishing to understand Macron and the future of France in the world. Now updated with new material including interviews with Emmanuel Macron.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Pedder, a longtime observer of French politics, argues in this excellent political biography that quiet revolutions such as Emmanuel Macron's En Marche political movement, which propelled him to the presidency of France in 2017 are no less ambitious than those driven by bomb-throwers and rioters in the street. After a beginning reminiscent of the dense and wordy essays of French political commentators, the author lays out the appealing contradictions of the man and his movement, which achieved what amounted to a "wholesale political clearout" of France's sclerotic and dysfunctional parties and governing personages. Pedder is especially adept at outlining the foibles, arrogance, and self-serving dynamics of the preceding 20 years of French political history, often with a light, witty touch. Macron's nonpartisan rise to power is, she says, effectively "detonating the two-party system" in Paris and throughout the rest of the country, where his aims of more flexible working rules would, he hopes, provide a much-needed jolt to the economy. The biographical sketch of Macron, slightly repetitive at times, portrays the young technocrat as an intriguing mix of formidable intellect, clear-eyed political calculation, and flashes of hubris. Wit, insight, and lots of time with the principal subject make this a terrific, beyond-the-basics introduction to present-day France for those who follow modern politics.