Macron’s popularity takes a hit

The struggle of choosing the chicken over the egg

While listening to a podcast, I stumbled upon a definition: CEO capitalism. To make it short, this expression describes a situation in which the decision-making progress of corporations is impeded by the fact that they have to answer to the mood of the investors. This means that any long-term planning a CEO wants to make, is a risky decision because the results could be disastrous at the beginning, but pick up in the long-term. Problem is, many investors will not wait for the long-term results and will jump ship much earlier, thus complicating the very effort the CEO was making. To be clear, nobody is forcing these companies to be on the stock market and it is a clear advantage to be able to rack up so much capital so quickly on top of the fact that a positive mood of the investors could bring you out of a slump you wouldn’t be able to get out off normally.

The observation was meant to highlight the decision-making process of the person in charge and to draw some similarities between the role of a CEO and that of a Prime Minister in most western democracies. In particular, I want to talk about Emmanuel Macron and the recent “bodyguardgate”. To quickly summarize, the former personal bodyguard of Macron, Alexandre Benalla, have been caught on tape violently attacking protesters on the 1st of May while wearing police gear and acting nearby other policemen. This hit the President particularly hard and, even though he condemned the fact and Benalla took full responsibility, it seems like it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. The president popularity was steadily but surely dropping but, up until now, he could and did interpret it as a temporary setback. Reforms, they say, first create loud discontent but then, if successful, silent success. And one thing we can say about Emmanuel is that he is trying the way of the reform and he bet on the fact that he was being seen as a tough but necessary medicine and that in the long run, France would have benefitted from his cure. Now though, this vision is cracking and the oppositions have been given a golden gun to use against the President. Granted, this doesn’t mean he’s done, but this disaffection of the electorate with politics runs deeper than just the relationship between them and Macron. Let’s not forget that his very party and election were called an experiment to subvert that very trend that was and is affecting every democracy in the west.

Now, in a world that outside the west (and often within too) is mostly run by the strongman figure, leaders that do not preoccupy themselves with re-elections or immediate popularity, the western leader reminds me of the CEO in the current economic system: hard decisions are necessary but he has to convince the investors and the consumers that his vision will prevail and benefit everyone if only they allow him some wiggle room. We can even say that Emmanuel has it easy compared to some other western leader who cannot even count on a stable parliamentary majority or are in need of much greater reforms than France. Nevertheless, if we can take a hint from the financial world, is that if you personalize your brand, if the CEO is also the face of the company, then he must also be as close to perfection as possible in terms of personal and public life. Just ask Elon Musk.