“Don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up” in the face of uncertainties and challenges, he hammered.
“We’re going back to bootcamp. It’s Rocky III,” he said. The CEOs cheered.
Standing up to superpowers is a quintessentially French role, reaching back to Charles de Gaulle and beyond. France is a country where school children are brought up reading about Asterix and Obelix, the story of embattled Gauls fighting against the Roman Empire.
Macron and his country this week embraced that role by calling on the European Union to use the Anti-Coercion Instrument against the U.S. in response to Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland; then declining an invitation to join Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace, citing concerns over its extensive powers, to which Trump responded by threatening 200 percent tariffs on French wine and Champagne; and finally, hours before Trump touched down in Switzerland, calling for NATO to organize a military drill in Greenland.
On stage in Davos Tuesday, Macron wasn’t afraid to poke at Trump, telling the audience that he preferred “respect to bullies.”
There’s something slightly reckless in Macron’s recent moves. But he is a man with little to lose. A tired lame-duck centrist, he faces the possibility of a painfully slow end to his reign before the next presidential election in 2027.
Macron can, at least for now, project power in memes. But turning that into political muscle is a whole different dogfight.
Kathryn Carlson contributed to this report.