The media’s coverage of the Gilet Jaune movement in France gives the false impression that the French openly challenging Macron’s government through protest and strike is anything new. Alghough France desperately needs Macron’s reforms, the President must lean slowly and deliberately into them, accounting for those that will need help and time to adjust. For Macron’s marathon of reforms, only slow and steady will win the race.
All in European Reform
Terms like strategic autonomy and defense union have become commonplace in the face of wavering American commitments to NATO and the transatlantic alliance. The shift in the discussion hints at a move towards greater European collective action on the world stage. With the resurgence of China, the return of Russia, the retreat of the United States, and the rise of the rest, Europe needs to define its own grand strategy.
Many people feel that European unity and the European dream are under threat. Weary of politicians who refuse to advance the European project and the appeasement of populists and nationalists, Volt Europa and European Spring decided to launch their own political movements.
The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 left Spain scrambling to reassemble a broken economy and combat soaring unemployment. European austerity measures and Catalonian dreams of independence have since occupied all of Madrid’s bandwidth and effectively back-seated Spanish foreign policy for over a decade. With the rise of Pedro Sánchez and the wounds of the financial crisis healing, Madrid has turned its attention back to Brussels, and is ready to assume the role of a leading power in Europe.
On the 1st of June, the social democratic party PSOE passed a vote of no confidence against then-President Mariano Rajoy in Congress and successfully installed the party leader Pedro Sánchez as President of Spain, leading a minority government. Although Sánchez’s arrival in La Moncloa was well received in the wider European political community, he has little time to make change before calling for new elections.