SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA DIARY Peter Costello

ess than two years ago five dismissal pay-outs. It prompted strikes ‘Lpeople sat in a room with a blank and street demonstrations. It did not sheet of paper,’ Benjamin Griveaux derail him. His approval ratings have the French Minister for Economic fallen but he points out that there Development tells me. ‘We had no are no further elections until 2022. money, no party, no candidates, He has time. Macron is a leader with and hardly any time before the 2017 a very clear sense of direction. That Presidential election.’ Griveaux makes him most unusual amongst his is a confidant of French President democratic counterparts. Emmanuel Macron. They were two of the five that decided to launch a new he French Finance Minister political movement and capture the TBruno Le Maire has a plan to cut middle ground of French politics. En government spending by 3 per cent of Marche! was launched on 6 April 2016. GDP. That is big. If Australia could Thirteen months later, Emmanuel France became a permanent member of do that its Budget would swing back Macron was elected President of the UN Security Council, but its power into strong surplus and without the the Republic. Griveaux jokes that was already waning. France developed rising tax take from bracket creep. En Marche! is a political ‘start-up’. a bloated public sector. Government The Minister tells me that he also Like a successful tech start-up, it has spending is more than half the size of wants to cut the national debt by 5 per completely disrupted the pre-existing the economy. Productivity is low and cent of GDP. ‘How do you explain order. unemployment is high, and it was the that policy to voters?’ I ask him. ‘It French model that gave birth to the term is all about sovereignty,’ he says. f course, Macron is eight days ‘Eurosclerosis’. “France must control its own future.’ ‘Oolder than me,’ says Griveaux. We used to think along those lines It’s hard to get my head around the rance is also dealing with a very real back in Australia when we focussed fact that the President was born in Fsecurity crisis. In November 2015 on balancing Budgets. But our leaders 1977. He will turn 40 at the end of co-ordinated terror attacks by gunmen don’t seem to worry as much about the the year. I think back to what I was in the streets of Paris, at Stade de France future now that we have reconciled doing in 1977. I was running around and the Bataclan Theatre, led then ourselves to rising government debt. in student elections, so too was Tony Abbott. The young Malcolm Turnbull Macron is a leader with a very clear s it turns out my dinner at the was a journalist at the Bulletin writing sense of direction. That makes him AÉlysée Palace is on St Crispin’s about our (and others) exploits. unusual amongst his counterparts day. My hosts have no reason to And these young Gauls were in the remember, but just over six hundred maternity hospital. They have now President Hollande to declare a state of years ago at Agincourt in France, the swept aside the political establishment emergency. It is still in place. Heavily English King Henry V inspired his – both left and right – that has armed police patrol the streets around outnumbered troops to a great victory dominated French politics since the the Presidential Palace. Vans of riot on this day. William Shakespeare Second World War. The President has and other police are on stand-by parked immortalised St. Crispin’s day in a a huge majority in the Parliament and along the major thoroughfares that speech delivered by Henry in his play. he intends to use it. Over our dinner intersect the Champs Élysées. There is Henry is rallying his troops: ‘This at the Élysée Palace, the boyish and no doubt that poor ethnic and religious story shall the good man teach his good-humoured President Macron integration and poor economic prospects son; and Crispin Crispian shall ne’er suddenly leans forward and tells us have created an underclass ripe for go by, from this day to the ending with an earnest voice: ‘Be sure, France radicalisation. of the world, but we in it shall be is back’. remember’d – we few, we happy few, he President tells us a revitalised we band of brothers.’ he Élysée is a testament to the TFrance will revitalise Europe. In a Tglory of France’s past. It is an world where America is turning inward, n this day I remember Henry’s ornate French chateau. The plaster he believes Europe can be a strong and Ohappy band of brothers and I on the elaborate ceilings shows the positive global influence. He mentions muse on President Macron and his intertwined initials of Napoleon III Syria and Africa as places where Europe band of brothers sitting with their and his wife Eugénie. The luxurious can make a strong contribution. He blank sheet of paper and plotting a garden leads down to the most wants to defend multilateralism in revival of the French Republic. As we famous boulevard in the world. Here Europe, and around the world. ‘But know, the prospects for countries and Emperors and their armies paraded can France change?’ I ask him. ‘Judge their peoples rise and fall. Leadership in triumph. De Gaulle walked down us by results,’ the President says. He – and all it takes is a band of brothers this very stretch to mark the liberation has already passed labour reform to (or sisters) – can really make a of Paris in the Second World War. liberalise working conditions and cap difference. the spectator australia | 4 november 2017 | www.spectator.com.au v