Two and a half months ago, Emmanuel Macron was named France’s economy minister by François Hollande with a mission to dramatically reform his country’s scelerotic labour market. The 36-year-old former Rothschild banker, denounced by the Socialist Party’s left as a “copy-and-paste Tony Blair”, is in London this week to discuss his policy programme and the future of the EU with politicians and others.
After meeting his British equivalent Vince Cable and Labour’s Chuka Umunna yesterday (he meets George Osborne today), Macron delivered a briefing to journalists at the French ambassador’s residence in Kensington. Speaking in fluent English, without the aid of notes, he declared that it was now “impossible” to be a “classical socialist” since the need for fiscal consolidation meant the traditional option of ramping up public spending was no longer available. Instead, he said, the French government had embarked on an “ambitious” programme of structural reform, including new tax incentives for business, the liberalisation of the 35-hour week and the loosening of Sunday trading laws, to “increase opportunity” and “restore equality of chance”. “Normally we spend public money. We are doing exactly the opposite, not because we are in favour of political suicide but because we see it as a unique opportunity to do the job [of reform],” he said, vowing to “attack monopolies” in order to “restore attractiveness to risk takers”.
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