Nicolas Tucat / AFP
Emmanuel Macron on June 26, 2025 photographed after a European summit in Brussels
POLITICS – We were starting to wonder where Emmanuel Macron had gone. After almost three days of silence, the President of the Republic reacted for the first, this Wednesday, July 30, at the announcement of Donald Trump and Ursula von der Leyen, of a trade agreement between the United States and the European Union.
A reaction that was particularly expected since Sunday while the ” deal “, Presented as a victory by the Americans, is unanimous against him in the French political class. To the silence of the Head of State responded the adjectives exhausted according to the tweets and the interviews: ” Capitulation », « surrender », « humiliation »… Including among elected officials in the common base. François Bayrou split a message mentioning a ” submission ».
Several ministers – of which at least three from the ranks of Renaissance – rose to the front to evoke an agreement certainly ” imbalance “, Who brings” stability “To companies, and avoids” the worst ». Éric Lombard (Economy), and Marc Ferracci (industry), just like Benjamin Haddad (European affair) and Laurent Saint-Martin (foreign trade), have succeeded in the media since Monday to hammer that ” This is not the end of the story And that it was actually much to negotiate.
“We were not feared enough”
Unsurprisingly, it is more or less the same words that were pronounced by Emmanuel Macron this Wednesday against the government for the last council of ministers before the summer break. “” France has always held a position of firmness and requirement. She will continue to do so. This is not the end of the story and we will not stop there. This is a first step in a negotiation process that will continue “, He said, before applying to the economy a formula already used for the armies:” Europe is not yet experienced as a power. To be free you have to be feared, we have not been feared enough ».
As a report of the Council of Ministers, Sophie Primas also insisted on the ” red lines French women who have been observed: no concession for our agricultural sectors, no questioning of our regulatory autonomy, our health and environmental standards, no new VAT that Donald Trump, or the exemption for the aeronautical sector, demanded.
The Elysian speech was certainly expected, as the EU-USA agreement twists the arm with the macronist ideal in matters of European sovereignty, but it does not say much more than those of the ministers who preceded it. Should we see embarrassment or annoyance?
Wait for the end of negotiations with Trump
The deal announced by the president of the European Commission is obviously not a surprise on the side of rue Saint-Honoré. Ursula von der Leyen having been mandated by the European Council to negotiate, the European heads of state and prime ministers were necessarily informed of the current discussions, and the strategy followed.
For months, Paris has pleaded to firmly brandish the threat of the anti-coercion tool, a commercial bazooka. An appeal that has remained a dead letter which partly explains why criticism of the agreement are more virulent in France than in our European neighbors, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Emmanuel Macron’s reaction is undoubtedly pragmatic: discussions are actually far from being finished with Washington, and therefore the fate of certain prestigious French sectors – at random wines and cosmetics – is still sealed. In the negotiation process in the face of vainness and revenge leader of the Maga movement, European strategy is therefore not to play the bidding. She even seems to be ready to leave her the facade victory, to better praise the small lines – certainly significant – that she is about to negotiate.
“We would have preferred all, government and president of the Republic, that this agreement takes place under the usual conditions of negotiations, that is to say in an official framework and not in a private golf course in Scotland”noted Sophie Primas, who also recalled that France will wait for the end of the discussions to position itself on the final agreement, which will have to be approved by all the Member States. Finally, in convinced and relentless European, difficult for the Head of State to be more virulent against institutions at the risk of weakening an EU that he wishes justly politically strong.
