Macron is a Bellwether for Neoliberal Politicians Everywhere

French president Emmanuel Macron held his first press conference on Thursday (see "Macron, Chastened by Yellow Vest Protests, Says ‘I Can Do Better’" by Adam Nossiter) after two years in office. He played the penitent and admitted to coming up short in his efforts to address the grievances of the Yellow Vests.

He promised to lower taxes by about $5.5 billion, put a stop to the vastly unpopular closing of rural schools and hospitals, peg pensions of less than $2,200 per month to inflation, and abolish one of the dominating institutions in French public life, ENA, or the National School for Administration, from which he and much of the government hierarchy have graduated.

Not insignificant but not in proportion to the mass uprising roiling France. How Macron proceeds is important because he is the one spectacular electoral achievement for peak neoliberalism post-Brexit and post-Trump. In other words, Macron is a bellwether for neoliberal politicians everywhere. If he's on the ropes and tossing gumdrops into the crowd, that's a bad sign for the global neoliberal consensus of the ruling elite and a good sign for the rest of us.