ParisFrance has always looked at Italy with a certain arrogance and air of superiority. In the last century, President Charles de Gaulle already said on one occasion, condescendingly, “oh, the Italians…”. The editorialist of the centrist Roman newspaper remembers it The Messenger Mario Ajello in an article dedicated to the turbulent political and economic situation in France. “Now we should shout, in French: Long live Italy!” concludes Ajello.
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The Italian republic has experienced long periods of political instability. Since its creation in 1946, it has had 68 different governments. France, on the other hand, has been a country with more stable governments since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Everything changes in 2022, when an unprecedented period of instability began that recalls the temperament of Italian politics. In the last three and a half years, the country has had five prime ministers. “France is becoming more and more like Italy”, says the Italian digital newspaper in a headline He Post. “And it’s not a compliment,” he points out.
President Emmanuel Macron began his second term in 2022 by losing his absolute majority in the National Assembly. Two years later, the call for early legislative elections meant that the Macronist coalition ceased to be the leading parliamentary force and that the Assembly was more fragmented than ever. No bloc – neither the right, nor the left, nor the center – has a large majority.
The lack of solid majorities in the chamber – an unprecedented fact in the Fifth Republic, with an electoral system that has traditionally favored absolute majorities – is the trigger for instability and ungovernability. Passing a motion of no confidence has never been so simple. Things in life, while France is experiencing a period of chaos, Italy is now enjoying a political stability not seen in the last four decades with the far-right Giorgia Meloni at the helm. The omelet has been turned.
Disorientation and apathy on the street
France has not only Italianized from a political point of view. Also economical. Since the pandemic, the public deficit has soared and the debt continues to grow while the GDP with enough work increases by a couple of tenths, a situation that Italy has also experienced, especially after the crisis of 2008. “The confusion is total, the country is ungovernable, the economy is apathetic, the French are disoriented or exasperated, and Europe is worried or sarcastic about this debacle”, the editorialist emphasizes of The World Gérard Courtois.
Since the beginning of the French political crisis, President Macron has shied away from all responsibility and points to the political parties as the ones to blame for the situation. “It is exempting oneself from responsibility. Because this is total, since their political strategy, their way of exercising power and the weakening of their reforming ambition come into play,” says Courtois. His denialism is paying him dearly: he is at his lowest popularity level since he became president and, politically, he is lonelier than ever.
More lonely than ever, Macron is at the lowest level of popularity since he became president
His disconnection from reality began the day after the 2024 legislative elections, when he declared that “nobody” had won the election. The most voted force was the coalition of the left, who presented themselves under the brand of the New Popular Front. The president never acknowledged the victory of the left: none of the four prime ministers he has appointed since 2024 are progressives.
Although the governments last only a few months, Macron is reluctant to call legislative elections again. The entire country was shocked when the president appointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister three days after he resigned. “The head of state pretends to exercise the fullness of his power, even though he has lost the reality of it,” says Gérard Courtois.
Nor did it seem to him that it was disrespectful to the opposition parties to appoint as head of government a politician who had been part of the previous executives, overthrown by the National Assembly in motions of censure or confidence. Two weeks after his appointment for the second time, Lecornu is still politically alive, but no one knows for how long. The President of the Republic is making things too easy for the extreme right, which is advancing unstoppably in the electoral polls.
Nostalgia of Mitter and Chirac
The French feel nostalgia for the time when France was presided over by figures like François Mitterrand or Jacques Chirac, with solid parties behind them and capable of managing cohabitations – which occurs when the government’s party is of a different color to that of the president – without turning them into crises. The current president of the Republic created his own party, now known as Renaissance. And the way events are unfolding, he is likely to die in 2027, when Macron ends his last term.
Even the general secretary of the party, former prime minister Gabriel Attal, has questioned the decisions of the tenant of the Elysee in recent weeks. “I don’t understand their decisions,” he went as far as to say. “The president has tried the same thing for a year. I think it’s time to try something else,” defended the politician, who seemed destined to be the president’s disciple. No one dares to guess what will happen in the 2027 presidential election, but it seems increasingly clear that Macronism is over.
