NEW ORLEANS – Accompanied by a jazz band at the airport, cheered by the crowd as he strolled through the French Quarter and even managed to do a few dance moves, President Emmanuel Macron rammed into the cities for hours France’s most American on Friday, his state’s last lap to visit the United States.
After a state dinner and a tense day of diplomacy in Washington, where President Biden and Mr. Macron on Thursday found a rare unity of purpose on the war in Ukraine and the economic challenges that stem from it, a visit to New Orleans seemed to provide a tonic for a leader whose Second term starting in May has proved difficult.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said: “It was re-created when she watched Macron greet people. “Any real politician loves crowds.”
Of course a crowd can do unexpected things. Mr. Macron was immediately thrown in the face of the history that drew him to New Orleans as he strolled down St. Peter, near Jackson Square.
“Idiot, you sold Louisiana for a piece of bread!” Esther Dahan, who grew up in Casablanca and is a fluent French speaker, spoke as Mr. Macron shook her hand.
“I know,” the president said, smiling a little wistfully and shaking his head.
Mrs. Dahan was referring to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, whereby France sold a large swath of territory to the United States for a little over $27 million. The sale, for about 3 cents an acre, nearly doubled the size of the United States and catapulted the fledgling country into a continental power.
On the exquisite iron balconies of the French Quarter, crowds waved goodbye to Mr. Macron. Some shouted “Allez Les Bleus!” – allusion to France’s World Cup soccer team, now won the right to the round of 16. When asked why she thinks Mr Macron came here, Denise Minvielle, a descendant of French grandparents, said: “Because it’s the best place on earth!”
French officials said a number of cities, including Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles, were considered second destinations during the visit. But Mr. Macron, with a deep understanding of history, backed New Orleans, which was last visited by a French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, 1976.
With relatively new leaders in power in Germany, Italy and Britain, Mr Macron, 44, is almost as well known in European politics as anyone, his restlessness and ever-seeking mind. he is a stimulus to some, a provocation to others.
One minute he was emphasizing that Russia must one day become part of the “strategic structure” of Europe, the next he was emphasizing the unacceptable “imperialist” aggression of the President. President Vladimir V. Putin, which was never allowed to stand. One minute you declare NATO”brain dead“as he did in 2019, the next time he praises the impregnable strength of the alliance.
On this visit, in just two days, he went from suggesting that Mr Biden’s economic policies could “fragment the West” because subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act create competition. healthy, to say that differences will be resolved and that the Franco-American friendship is unbreakable.
He is always experimenting with new ideas and changing tactics. People calling him a “simultaneous” president is nothing. His hiatus since becoming France’s leader at the age of 39 has virtually destroyed the centre-left and centre-right parties that were the cornerstone of postwar French politics – the Socialists and the Republicans.
But having lost his parliamentary majority in elections in April and lost admiration for many French after a boom in 2017, he sought political direction as the Ukraine war and efforts to fruitless force to put an end to it. take up a lot of his time.
Therefore, the warm American reception and unexpected, if highly conditional, support from Mr. Biden for reaching out to Mr. Putin, was particularly welcome. Now he can go home to Paris with his diplomacy at least partially proven and America’s oldest alliance reaffirmed.
Mr. Macron has been relentlessly attacked by the left in France for his support of the rich and his proposal to gradually raise the retirement age to 65 from 62; and the right for being soft on immigration. In the United States, however, he went a long way to overcoming economic tensions and the best way to end the war.
Welcoming Mr. Macron mid-afternoon on Thursday during a long-delayed lunch at the State Department, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said: “Good evening.”
When the laughter died down, he described the French leader standing beside him as a man of “exceptional vision” and “a source of inspiration for all of us, all of our partners. We cannot do without it.”
How much of a political beast Mr Macron is was quickly made apparent during a lunch hosted by Mr Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris. Without taking notes, speaking in English, explaining that his meeting with President Biden lasted three hours because “we sorted everything out,” Macron composed an impromptu hymn of praise ” unique relationship” between the United States and France.
If some see the two countries as “too proud or overconfident,” suggested Macron, it is because “we fully believe that we have a responsibility to defend certain universal values, “like the freedoms young American soldiers defended when they died on European soil “they had never known before.”
“We will never forget that,” he said.
At the postponed lunch, Mr. Macron also thanked the United States for its “unmatched commitment and investment” in supporting the Ukrainian people as winter approaches. From the leading proponent of Europe’s “strategic autonomy,” an idea that sometimes irks the Bidens, this seems like a particularly generous endorsement of the vital role America plays. in Europe.
From the war, Mr. Macron turned to domestic politics, noting what he called “the rise of racism and hate speech” in Western societies. He thanked the United States for turning its back on “demagogues.”
In all that reciprocity, Mr. Macron has never wavered from one thing: the central importance of the fight against far-right nationalism and France’s commitment to the European Union. the bulwark of postwar democracy and freedom on the continent. As the United States wobbled over former president Donald Trump and Britain ahead of Brexit, he twice stood between France and the victory of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party.
This is especially important for Mr. Biden, who likes to say that the world is at a tipping point between democracy and rising autocracy.
While in New Orleans, Mr. Macron met Elon Musk. Officials said the meeting, which is not on his official agenda, took place at the request of Mr Musk, whom Mr Macron met twice as economy minister between 2014 and 2016 but has never been president before.
“In line with our ambition to become carbon neutral and re-industrialize France and Europe, today I spoke with Elon Musk about industrial projects,” Macron said in a tweet. green in the future, especially the production of electric cars in Europe and batteries”.
On Friday night, Mr. Macron gave a speech at the New Orleans Museum of Art in which he said he felt at home. “There is what I would call a familiar strangeness about this city,” he said, adding that “our language and history are all here.”
This seems to be what Mr. Macron is looking for when he comes to New Orleans, one of America’s most European cities. A French student, Thibault Boyer, 20, who is studying engineering at the University of New Orleans, said he was happy to exchange a few words with the president.
“It’s strange that I have more opportunities to meet him here than in my hometown of Paris,” he said. “I never expected that.”
