Make Europe Great Again: The Politicising Pro-European Narrative of Emmanuel Macron in France

Bouza García, Álvaro Oleart

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademic

Abstract

The increasing politicisation of the eu in the last decade has further intertwined national and european politics. The progressive introduction of european issues into the national political debates has incentivised that national political leaders ‘use’ europe in their political narratives when running for elections. One of the most salient political leaders that have emerged as unapologetically pro-european in this politicised context is emmanuel macron, former french finance minister and current french president since 2017. In order to contribute to analyse how ‘europe’ is narrated in the current politicised environment, we analyse emmanuel macron’s discourse on europe before and after his election as president. We will do so through a narrative analysis of documents (such as speeches, a public letter, and a media interview) in which macron appealed not only to french citizens but to european citizens, from 2016 to 2019. Our findings suggest an appropriation of ‘europe’ by macron’s discourse, which, while attempting to increase the support for european integration, is laying the grounds for anyone that opposes macron’s particular idea of ‘europe’ to be understood as ‘anti-european’.keywordseuropean unionemmanuel macronfranceeuroscepticismmake europe great againnarrative analysis.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTracing the Politicisation of the EU
EditorsTaru Haapala, Álvaro Oleart
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages271-293
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-82700-7
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-82699-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Publication series

SeriesPalgrave Studies in European Political Sociology

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