Arthur Delaborde
modified to
08:24, April 08, 2023
The visit was essential for Franco-Chinese relations and the war in Ukraine. However, in addition to a more mixed record, the president will not have spent a single one of his three days in China without being overtaken by the political and social crisis linked to the pension reform.
Despite the more than 10,000 kilometers separating him from France, Emmanuel Macron has had no respite on the pension front. This Friday, when several hundred students from Sun Yatsen University in Canton gave him a warm welcome, a new controversy broke out in Paris, this time on suspicion of strong tensions between the president and his First minister.
Many controversies
Matignon, like the Élysée, immediately had to work to defuse the emerging crisis. “They are in continuous contact. They work very well together,” explained a close adviser in an attempt to close the chapter before the president leaves China.
The old, from Beijing, Emmanuel Macron had already had to manage the 11th day of mobilization against the pension reform in France. And as of Wednesday, just after his arrival on Chinese soil, Emmanuel Macron had personally worked to respond to the failure of the discussions between Élisabeth Borne and the unions.
An endless sequence for the president
The movements of the President of the Republic are therefore not synonymous with parentheses for him in this interminable sequence of retreats, even if he often enjoys a much higher popularity abroad than at home. of our borders, in the current context.
It remains to be seen whether this observation will also apply to the state visit he will make on Tuesday and Wednesday to the Netherlands.