analysis
Mocked by Donald Trump, shunned by Chancellor Merz, betrayed by his own party in Paris: Emmanuel Macron found himself politically sidelined during the WEF week. This is not good for Europe.
January 25, 2026, 06:30January 25, 2026, 06:30
Stefan Brändle, Paris / ch media
Emmanuel Macron actually just wanted to hide his red, inflamed right eye. But when he showed up at the World Economic Forum in Davos wearing reflective aviator sunglasses, the Paris media made fun of his “virile, rather ridiculous appearance like in the action film ‘Top Gun’.”
Emmanuel Macron during the WEF.Image: keystone
Donald Trump also scoffed during his speech: “Emmanuel wants to play the tough guy with his nice sunglasses. He will no longer be in office in a few months.” At the latest, Macron had made a mistake with the American when he gave his “Peace Council” the cold shoulder. Since then, the Frenchman, who is a generation younger than him, has been the target of Trump’s anger. His country should pay for the betrayal with 200 percent tariffs on champagne and wine.
For a long time, the two very different self-promoters had understood each other well and even admired each other. For example, when Macron invited Trump to the troop parade on France’s national holiday. But friendship rarely lasts among super narcissists. When Macron suggested a conciliatory Parisian dinner on the way back from Davos, Trump didn’t even respond. Likewise, the extraordinary G-7 meeting “on the sidelines of the WEF” in Paris planned by Macron did not take place.
Not even Pope Leo XIV wants to receive the French head of state at the moment, Macron has sunk so low. The Vatican has postponed two requests for an audience in Paris since last October due to “scheduling problems”.
Merz prefers Meloni to Macron
Meanwhile, the EU partners are also avoiding the Frenchman. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been demanding a definitive French commitment to building the joint FCAS fighter jet for months. In the fall he even issued an ultimatum until the end of 2025. That expired without Macron making a commitment.
Maybe he can’t say yes at all. In Paris he can’t even force the stubborn aircraft manufacturer Dassault to marry Airbus. No president of the Fifth Republic founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1958 had as little authority in Paris as Macron.
The German-French divide over the Mercosur agreement between the EU and South America is just as deep. The economically liberal head of state promotes free trade. But he is so weakened domestically that he has to throw his own convictions overboard because he fears the wrath of French farmers.
All of this means that even the CDU Chancellor is questioning the core German-French relationship: “Merz is now relying on Meloni,” was the headline in the German media this week before the German government visit to Rome. To add: “Macron is history.”
Giorgia Meloni has just taken the German side at Mercosur. And when it comes to the European fighter jet project, the Italian Prime Minister is also proving to be much more cooperative than the French. That works.
Macron, on the other hand, is increasingly isolated not only in terms of foreign and European policy: In Paris, he, the supposedly all-powerful President, has lost the parliamentary majority and thus control over the entire domestic policy. He gave the minority Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who was appointed in September, the task of drawing up an “austerity budget”. But the conservative head of government preferred to join forces with the Socialist Party to save his own skin.
Instead of cutting excessive government spending, he increased corporate taxes by eight billion euros – an affront to Macron, who at the same time praised his country’s “increasing competitiveness” in Davos and wooed foreign investors.
Lecornu also put the only major achievement of Macron’s second term, pension reform, on hold for two years. The president has to watch helplessly as his own government messes up his economic reforms in order to survive the regular no-confidence votes in the National Assembly.
But he has time to read the books that are published about him. The latest is called “Nero in the Elysée”; It contains quotes from Parisian eminences such as Alain Minc, who says of his former trust in Macron: “He is the worst president of the Fifth Republic.”
The sobering conclusion of the WEF week: A weakened, paralyzed France will remain in a permanent crisis until Macron leaves office – and even beyond that if the right-wing populists win the 2027 presidential elections. (aargauerzeitung.ch)