Emmanuel Macron, elected president of the French Republic, tried to catalyse French chauvinism by restoring the Grandeur’s atabism. This doctrine stated that it would combine the cult of economic, political and military independence of France with the strengthening of the national mission and of French culture in the world.

However, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the conflict in Ukraine, highlighted the disturbing dependence of western countries on WHO and URLs, with the consequent loss of decision-making power on the part of the European institutions and the total submission to American geopolitical orders, making France an irrelevant power in the new geopolitical Cold War 2.0.

In domestic policy, at the request of the French Employers’ Party (MEDEF) and with opposition from the main French trade unions (CFDT, CGT and FO), the Macron government has proposed to delay retirement to 64 years by 2030, a missile on the flotation line of French idiosyncrasy, whose collective imaginary would have included the right to early retirement as a reward of its effort.

At the same time, the loss of purchasing power of the workers as a result of strong inflation and the perverse impoverishment of the middle classes would increase the social breakdown of the country, which would force large sections of the population to depend solely on the good.

As a result, the old boring and subordinate trade unions (CGT, CFDT and FO) will be radicalised. Labour disputes will often be triggered, and by 19 January there will be a baptism of fire in the next general strike convened by the trade unions and opposition parties.

Nor can the inclusion of anti-system groups that could correct the students' successive revolts to re-edit May 68 and condemn Macron's figure to political ostracism.

Germán Gorraiz López, Analyst