It seems inevitable that French presidents will eventually become Napoleons. Perhaps with the exception of Jacques Chirac, who was truly happy at the Salon de l'Agriculture, at some point they are swallowed up by the magnitude and isolation. This is the case today with Emmanuel Macron, who views political chaos as if it were nothing to him and chooses prime ministers without first working on coalitions or policies that the National Assembly should support. Macron is convinced of his presidential infallibility and expresses it without blushing: "The political parties are the only ones responsible for the disorder" and "They are not up to the moment." He distances himself from the situation and postpones calling presidential elections, but things would have to change a lot to ultimately avoid the rise of the far right.
France is experiencing a moment of structural uncertainty. The political crisis surrounding President Macron and his government coincides with a fragile economic situation and evident internal wear and tear within his own camp and the political system. What was supposed to be the "reformist moment" of a modern, focused France is testing the resilience of the Fifth Republic.
"Macron continues to act as if he were the strongman of the regime, but he no longer has the tools to sustain this fiction," he wrote.Le Mondeon October 13. The president, re-elected in 2022, faces a fragmented Assembly, an aggressive opposition waiting its turn each time, and a fatigued electorate.
The succession of governments—five prime ministers and more than 100 ministers in three years—has eroded institutional credibility. The current head of government, Sébastien Lecornu, is trying to maintain the helm, but his authority is perceived as an extension of the Élysée Palace rather than as autonomous leadership, and he is worn down by a fake resignation 26 days into his first government. In the weeklyLe PointThey have described the atmosphere as an "infantilization of politics," in which Macron centralizes decisions without offering a clear exit strategy. A professorial Macron speaks to students who neither listen nor pay any attention to him.
A budgetary Himalaya
If the political crisis is profound, the economic situation is a reflection of it. France is saddled with a debt of €3.4 trillion (115.6% of GDP) and a deficit close to 5.7%, one of the highest in the eurozone. Prime Minister Lecornu speaks of a "budgetary Himalaya": a wall of adjustments, reforms, and sacrifices that the government cannot scale without breaking its own political bloc, as it did this week. The IMF forecasts the deficit will continue to grow in 2026, and rating agencies are downgrading France's rating.
The lack of a stable government and uncertainty about future fiscal, budgetary, and regulatory decisions have paralyzed confidence among both businesses and consumers. Many companies are postponing investments or suspending projects due to the impossibility of predicting the political and economic framework of the coming months. This caution also extends to international investors, who are beginning to perceive France as a more insecure and less attractive environment than before. There is less activity, less hiring, and a notable reduction in private investment. Growth remains at very low levels and threatens to drag down other European economies dependent on French demand.
Market confidence is fragile, and each new political concession—such as the temporary suspension of pension reform—increases the feeling that France relies on political credit as much as financial credit.
A democratic fatigue announced
The underlying problem is no longer just the management of power, but the loss of collective trust. France seems caught in a paradox: the state remains strong, but its legitimacy is weakening; the president retains formal power, but can no longer transform it into effective action. In the words ofLe Monde: "What France is experiencing today is not just a political crisis. It is a crisis of regime: the contract between power, society, and the state has been broken."
Emmanuel Todd's diagnosis inAfter the démocratie(2008) seems more pertinent today than ever. Todd warned that France was heading toward an ideological and moral vacuum, the result of the disappearance of grand narratives and the loss of social cohesion. "When democracy becomes a form without content," he wrote, "citizens cease to feel involved, and power no longer finds legitimacy beyond its own representation."
Todd already identified the symptoms that are visible today: the exhaustion of civic education, the fracture between the people and the elites, and the transformation of politics into a communication spectacle. "Our literate but disconnected societies end up turning in on themselves," he said, "and confuse the exercise of voting with the experience of democracy."
What France is experiencing today is perhaps the culmination of this democratic fatigue. In short, Macronism, which was born as a promise of regeneration, has become just another symptom of a democracy tired of itself.
