Daniel Cohn-Bendit swore that he was "neither offended nor angry." Sitting in his customary restaurant in a small hotel near rue Daguerre in Paris, the former MEP preferred to speak of an "intellectual disappointment" when referring to his relationship with Emmanuel Macron. This former leader of the May 68 student protests, who had supported the president since his first election in 2017, announced his official break with the Head of State to Le Monde on Sunday, December 10.
He was captivated by Macron's en même temps approach (literally "at the same time"), a refrain commonly used for positioning himself as a unifying centrist, which Cohn-Bendit felt made it possible to overcome the "unbearable" left-right divide. But he no longer identifies with the French president's line. "There's no more 'en même temps'," he complained, but rather an "old world" policy that only relies on its right wing. "What made sense in Emmanuel Macron's policy was perhaps an illusion," he said. "I was seduced [by this policy]," he admitted, clarifying: "I'm not the vexed mistress, it's not like that, hey!"
The political veteran's messages to Macron have long gone unanswered. Cohn-Bendit says he doesn't care about the president's sudden lack of interest, even if there's a hint of bitterness when he describes Macron as a man who "consumes people like fruit. At one point, the season is over."
The wound he describes is more ideological than emotional. As the Rassemblement National (RN) continues to make headway, "Danny the Red" professed to be "afraid of what the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin – and therefore Emmanuel Macron – is currently producing," referring to the immigration bill which will be debated on the floor of the Assemblée Nationale from December 11.
"[Darmanin] has made an analysis: France is on the right. And only looks for the right's support," he said, lamenting that Macron lacks the "lucidity"– he dares not use the word "courage" – to "speak certain truths" about the challenge posed by immigration: France and Europe need labor immigration – not just people with qualifications – and we can't impose quotas on the number of refugees.
"Yes, people are panicking. But what I'm asking a president like Emmanuel Macron to do is to confront [the pressure exerted by the right and far right]," he fumed. According to him, tackling the subject of immigration in such a right-wing way will not appease the country. On the contrary, "the consequences will be terrible," he feared. "Let's say the text passes – let's even say the hardest version of the text, the one voted by the Sénat, passes – what will the result be? At the presidential elections four years from now, nothing will have changed. And who's going to win? Marine Le Pen!" he stormed, nostalgic for the balanced approach the French president had promised in his 2017 Orléans speech, combining "authority" and "humanity."
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