French President Emmanuel Macron had to deliver confessions of his impotence this week, foreign and domestic. "We must increase the pressure on Turkey to stop this offensive," said Macron at the Franco-German ministerial meeting on Wednesday in Toulouse, with the approval of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But no observer believed that France and Germany could really do anything to stop the Turkish attack on Kurdish areas in Syria. No one expected that from a German chancellor. From a French president already.
"It's beyond question that the fighters all come back at once," Macron tried to counter the worst fears in France. Because with the Turkish offensive began the debate on the return of former French fighters of the terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS) from Syria. On 60 men their number should amount. Many French people are afraid of their return home.
French Foreign Minister for IS fighters in Baghdad
Therefore, on Wednesday evening, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian traveled to Baghdad to find ways with the Iraqi government to arrest the former IS fighters in Syria and transfer them to Iraqi prisons.
In the summer Macron appeared as a master of foreign policy improvisation. At the end of August, for example, he summoned the Iranian foreign minister to the G7 summit in France, urging negotiations between the US and the Islamic Republic.
It almost looked as if he could succeed. But Washington and Tehran remained tough. And now France is threatening to overtake the Syrian conflict, in which the country does not play a decisive role, neither militarily nor diplomatically.
Macron is no longer relying on political powerplay
At European level, Macron, who has been in office for two and a half years, does not look much better. Although he was able to enforce his favorite German Ursula von der Leyen as the new EU Commission President after the European elections. Merkel liked to do it. But because he bounced off the European Parliament, which would rather have chosen someone from among its own ranks to the top of the committee, the parliament now examined the French candidate for the Commission.
The French at home have now learned how unpopular their president is in Brussels. They thought that he was the perfect European - which had previously earned him enough criticism of the right-wing populists around Marine Le Pen. So now even the Pro-Europeans were mad at him.
So far, Macron would have jumped ahead to tackle the next big topic, the next reform. But now it is becoming apparent that he is no longer a beginner. He takes back, no longer relies on political powerplay. Macron plays defensive for the first time.
Pension reform postponed - indefinitely
This was made clear by an exclusive report from the Paris business newspaper "Les Echos" this Thursday: Accordingly, Macron pushes one of his largest remaining domestic reform projects, the pension reform, indefinitely:
- Macron's reform was to hit all pension contributors from the year of birth 1963 so far.
- Now the reform should apply only to those who are new to the labor market.
This measure, which has not yet been approved by the government, appears to have been linked to the "yellow-voted" protests and public service warning strikes over the past few weeks.
New phase of setbacks
So Macron is involved. He has to allow the Turks, without US assistance in the Middle East has no own trading options. He must pay tribute to the European Parliament. He has to go back home with his reforms.
Was it because the Franco-German Summit in Toulouse was almost noiseless and surprisingly successful? Is that why the Brexit negotiations are advancing, for which he used to like to set new conditions on his own?
In any case, Macron has been experiencing a new phase of setbacks since the beginning of the "Yellow West" protests a year ago. But, it is clear: He is a quick learner, yet he always emerged from exams strengthened.