France - history comes around to leadership of the democratic free world

During the 18th century age of enlightenment, when Europe was awakening from the dark Middle Ages, it was France that was among the countries that led the inspiration for democracy. 

Perhaps Emmanuel Macron, today's president of France, is giving new meaning to the proverb about "what goes around comes around".  Reported in The Week, it is Macron who now sets the world's agenda, during the political "dark ages of Trump".

Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron has been President of France since May 2017.

Published in the September 6/ September 13, 2019 The Week.

BIARRITZ, France- Emmanuel Macron is the only world leader who is ready to face our exestential challenges, said Edward Luce, in the Financial Times (U.K.).  The french president played host to the Group of Seven major democracies this year, rolling out the red carpet at the glitzy Basque seaside resort of Biarritz.  But, Macron's role was more than symbolic.  The leader of the world's democracies has traditionally been the U.S., but in Donald Trump, the U.S. has a leader with an "allergy to all things to do with alliances, democracies, cooperation and so forth."

Germany's Angela Merkel is now "fading gracefully into retirement." Canada's Justin Trudeau is facing an election. Boris Johnson just "wants to complain about Ireland," and Italy really has no leader at all.  "Alone among world leaders, Macron is trying to spark a serious conversation about life-and-death issues that affect us all."

Macron is ready to take his big turn on the world stage, if only  he can "manage" Trump, said Francois-Savier Bourmaud, in Le Figaro (France).  He wants to work out the world's problems from Syria to the Amazon. Except, the U.S. president Trump keeps worsening them, or creating more.  Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015, Iran nuclear deal, to which European countries are also a party.  Trump started a trade war with China that is reverberating in other countries.  And, he rejects climate science. Macron knows Trump pretty well by now, and he recognizes that the only way to get him to change courst is to "offer him a better deal."  So, on Iran, Macron tried to do just that, by inviting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to Biarritz and repeatedly raising the subject of a new, better Iran deal. He actually got Trump to agree to eventual talks with Iran, mediated by France.

With his perfect English and relentless glad-handing, Macron "showed himself to be the mater of diplomacy," said Barbara Wesel for Deutsche Welle (Germany).  To tackles the Amazon rain forest fires, he used "both carrots and sticks." First, he threatened Brazilian President Jair Bolsonato with the abrogation of the Mercosur trade deal between the European Union (EU) and Brazil if Bolsonaro did not do more to fight the fires, and, presto!, the Brazilian army turned out to do just that.  Then, Macron coaxed the G-7 members into creating a $22 million rain forest emergency fund.

But, that achievement is in doubt after Brazil demanded an apology for being left out of the talks, said Stefan Brandle, in Der Standard (Austria). Meanwhile, Macron's proposed tax on digital giants like Google and Amazon went nowhere, and there was no progress on combating terrorism in West Africa, one of his pet projects. Still, this G-7 saw no Trump-induced diplomatic catastrophe, and in today's world, that counts as a win.  "Nobody could expect anything more."