THE KING OF OTHERS.

Sunday's elections for the French parliament were a plebiscite for President Emmanuel Macron. This landslide is historical. It is also "tricky". The president is not a miracle worker. The number of abstentions is far too high to be ignored. The center won over the traditional right and left parties but it will not be that easy to switch from sophisticated generalities to dire governing.

Macron acts like a regal president. The French were getting tired of President Hollande's "normal". They killed their own monarch but got frustrated seeing almost every other foreign head of state surrounding him or herself with faux Louis XVI, while they still have the real thing. This new young president can talk like a CEO but is not adverse to some ceremonial decor. Hence he chose to meet the czar Putin in Versailles.

For now he is the new kid on the European block and he can get away with almost everything. He might seek to become the heir of Jean Monnet and Robert Schumann. The EU is ready for a change after years of uninspiring policies and unknown commissioners.  Brexit is a wake-up call which could likewise open the way for a more appealing, mobilizing approach. Trump's America is, for the time being, more a freakish interruption than a challenging alternative. After the German election in September the Paris/Berlin leadership will have the trust of both the voters at home and of the EU at large.

Obviously Macron has to put his own house in order first. Unemployment is far too high. The fault-lines in French society run deep. The role of the state needs streamlining. The same goes for the EU which must reconnect if it does not want to be ignored or sidelined for good. The institutions of the EU have become a COMECON redux, ruled by politicians who were often an embarrassment at home before being dumped in Brussels. This has been a mistake which led to the various unpleasant circumstances regarding the Maastricht Treaty or Brexit.

President Macron gives the impression that he understands the need for the EU to arrive at an upgraded otherness. Europeans, for too long, have been inclined to look down at the Brussels behemoth. It is time to return to a more upscale mode. Paris might already have given the right tone. After all, the Trump administration seems clueless, Russia playing for the long haul needs to be contained, and China only thinks and acts as China. Let the EU be again the ultimate reference for continental Europe (avec l'accent francais, pourquoi pas?)