France is burning and Emmanuel Macron is fighting for his legacy. However, this determination may destroy them
Macron, who has less than 20 months left at the Élysée, is focused on cementing his place in the history books and, French officials say, he believes he has earned the distinction for his work in the Middle East.
The French president could not miss the opportunity to take part in the Monday peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, even if his country was plunged into chaos. And the Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, whom he twice appointed, was forced to postpone the presentation of the draft budget by one day, which almost caused the deadline to be missed.
In recent days, French officials have been working hard to create a narrative that the Gaza peace plan pushed by US President Donald Trump was initiated by Macron himself and its leading role in achieving recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“This is why Macron was keen to attend the summit in Egypt,” a government adviser told POLITICO, who, like others quoted in this article, was granted anonymity. According to the Lecorn ally, the president was “very, very focused” on Gaza.
The French political system is structured in such a way that the president can represent the country internationally, while the prime minister deals with domestic affairs. However, in France we are dealing with exceptional circumstances, as Lecornu resigned just 14 hours after the government was announced, and some politicians even speculated that Macron might not finish his term.
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At first glance, Macron seems follow in the footsteps of former presidentssuch as Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, who in the later years of their term, after losing their parliamentary majority, focused on the international scene.
However, Macron did not abandon domestic policy. — Unlike his predecessors, he does not adopt an attitude of non-commitment, said one of Macron's supporters.
— Macron very much draws attention to its visibility on the European and international arena said a former French official. “It's all he has left to give the impression that he still has influence.
Pretense game
The Elysee Palace went into lobbying mode last week, intensifying meetings with scientists and journalists to convince them that Macron played a key role in the success of Trump's peace plan.
“The priority of the Élysée was to spread the idea that their plan was very useful,” said the former diplomat, referring to the French-Saudi plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
At the UN General Assembly last month, Macron risked incurring the ire of the United States and Israel by pushing for a Palestinian state, and then a dozen Western countries did the same. His speech at the United Nations sparked comparisons in Paris to other situations in which France has stood up to Washington, most notably former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's landmark 2003 speech in which he rejected Washington's march to war in Iraq.
French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump during the peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, October 13, 2025.Yoan VALAT / POOL / AFP / AFP
During his stay in Egypt, Macron carefully played with the optics of power to avoid being perceived as a secondary figure compared to Trump. He chose not to stand at the podium behind the US president, instead sitting next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Middle Eastern leaders, a move noticed by Trump.
In a conversation with journalists on the sidelines of the summit, Macron spoke about the efforts needed to maintain the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the contribution that France can make.
When asked about national policy, he introduced himself as the “guarantor of French institutions” but could not refrain from attacking opposition parties for trying to destabilize his prime minister.
Won the battle, lost the war
Many officials say the French president is trying to stay out of the conflict. There are several explanations for why he does this that go beyond the legacy argument.
Some attribute this to the Jovian strategy of surrounding one's office with an aura of mystery, communicating with grand gestures and refusing to get their hands dirty in national political games.
One government official said Macron was “probably letting tensions fade” and remaining silent to protect the institutional balance of power in the French state.
Others say the silence is strategic, even magnanimous. They say the president knows how unpopular he is — recent polls show his approval rating is 14 percent. — and tries to prevent damage to the image of its allies.
But Macron never really lets up. During a meeting with opposition parties last week, Macron made it clear who was in charge hereproposing a partial delay of its flagship pension bill that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 for most workers.
Emmanuel Macron in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images
Over the past year, Macron has elected prime ministers from the center and center-right to fend off attacks on this law and other achievements such as tax cuts.
Many saw his decision to reappoint the loyal Lecorn, just days after his resignation, as a clear example of his stubborn refusal to hand over power, even though his camp lost early elections last spring.
Macron was finally forced to sell the crown jewel he had been guarding, pension reform, at least for now. Lecornu announced on Tuesday that it would freeze the bill raising the retirement age until 2027 to secure the support of the Socialist Party and survive the no-confidence vote that took place on Thursday.
Macron may yet save his pension reform as doubts arise over whether the suspension of the law will be accepted by parliament.
But fighting tooth and nail to secure your legacy can also destroy itif Macron fails to secure the future of his centrist movement and potential successors such as former prime ministers and likely presidential candidates Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal.
Macron's handling of the current crisis will almost certainly influence the campaign of any centrist who tries to stop Marine Le Pen or someone else from the far-right National Rally party from winning the presidency.
— What image do we present? We support pension reform and then we give up. It's not clear, said the Lecorn ally cited earlier.
“The only person who seems to know what he stands for is Marine Le Pen,” he said. — It has a populist message, but it is simple and consistent: this circus must end.
