Arnaud Benedetti is associate professor at Paris-Sorbonne University. He is editor-in-chief of the political and parliamentary review. He has published Le coup de com 'permanent (ed. Du Cerf, 2018) in which he details Emmanuel Macron's communication strategies, as well as La Fin de la com' (ed. Du Cerf, 2017).
"History" they say ...
Rarely in the last 48 hours has the word been so projected to characterize the negotiations which have just ended in Brussels. Rarely will communication have so hammered home the reference to history to designate negotiations which, in essence, recall the inexorable banality of a Brussels dramaturgy whose springs are as old as the mechanics of European construction since 1957.
This pressure on opinions before each summit is a classic in European politics.All the scansions of a theatricality that is the media success of the EU stage were spelled out against the background: the tension from the start over the exceptional nature of the event, the interruptions of sessions, the hardening of the positions of some and others, the incessant bargaining of divergent interests which are struggling to intersect, the endless stretching of long nights of exchanges, bilateral meetings, warning shots, "backstage leaks" in the direction of the press, the abyss of rupture and failure ... and finally the agreement torn from the forceps thanks to the determination of the Franco-German couple. This pressure on opinions before each summit is a classic in European politics. It is as if Europe needs this stress to attract attention and generate expectation.
To tell the truth, this historical overvaluation of a recurrence applies above all to rulers who strive to enchant national opinions.The context of the health crisis and its innumerable consequences, both economic and social, has boosted this phenomenon. The essential ingredients for the scenic attractiveness of the moment have again condensed to give impetus to an institutional mechanism that the peoples of the old continent observe from afar. It took a choir, like the ancient tragedy, to breathe life into this moment. The media fulfilled this role, also relaying the words of the conclave of the leaders gathered in Brussels.
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To tell the truth, this historical overvaluation of a recurrence applies above all to rulers who strive to enchant what is not necessarily perceived as such by their national opinions. For want of having made history, the EU has above all, once again, saved face as if Europe, an indefinite and uncertain political object, was always bending more but not breaking. In a way, this Europe of the recovery plan, whose multiple unknowns are covered by the victorious declarations, has survived on its own, continuing its history of course, but without making history either ...