Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Macron's Grand Ideas Will Be Shot Down, One by One

All but the softest and least important projects the French president proposed for Europe face strong, well-defined opposition.

September 27, 2017 at 1:38 PM UTC

By Leonid Bershidsky

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Other audiences will be less friendly.
Photographer: Ludovic Martin/AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

The barrage of reform proposals French President Emmanuel Macron unleashed on Europe Tuesday came so fast and furious that listeners had no time to wonder which ones were feasible or even desirable. It's worth asking that question now, even as German political party leaders prepare to discuss Macron's ideas during the coalition talks.

Macron's ideas have to be tested against the positions of four sets of forces that can influence progress: the EU bureaucracy; the German political establishment; the renegade Eastern European nations; and the fiercest tax competitors in the EU, such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Cyprus. Almost each important Macron proposal goes against the interests of one of these groups.