Macron's Sorbonne Speech 2.0 : a final attempt to gain support for the European elections?

Seven years after his founding speech at La Sorbonne pleading for a sovereign, united and democratic Europe, President Macron returned to the subject last Thursday. However, the context had dramatically changed: his 2017 speech came right after his first election, rallying his supporters behind the European flag and was unanimously perceived as giving a new impetus to a unified Europe. 2024 has brought a much more difficult context for the President: decreasing popularity, the loss of an absolute majority in Parliament, and his candidate for the EU election far behind in polls.

Thus, while unveiling his ambitions for the next EU mandate, President Macron set a darker tone for his speech right away: "our Europe is mortal, it can die," he warned. After praising the achievements from the past few years (aka, focus on the pandemic management, Franco-German initiatives on battery, cohesion in the Ukraine war, etc.), he moved to describing Europe's fragility and call for decisive actions.

The content of President Macron’s speech and the priorities presented were not much of a surprise. His main theme in 2017 of strategic autonomy remained, now broken down into different sectors, with a large focus on defense. He also defined five strategic sectors that Europe needs to invest into to emerge as a global leader by 2030: artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space exploration, biotechnology, and new energy technologies. Even though he mentioned the resources needed - between 600 and 1,000 billion euros annually over the next decade - he remained vague and did not bring out new initiatives.

As in 2017, President Macron did not fail to mention multilateral relationships, pointing out that Europe is trailing behind China and the United States and emphasized the urgent need for a robust collective investment strategy. He also advocated for a significant revision of the European trade policy to better safeguard and promote European interests on the global stage.

The President positioned his speech as an influential contribution to the next EU mandate and refuted any electoral tactics. However, it is undeniable that he took the offensive at a time when his camp is struggling to make headway in the campaign.

Gabriel Attal's appointment as Prime Minister was President Macron's first campaign move. By betting on youth and audacity, he hoped to counter the far-right party surge in the polls. Attal was supposed to represent a counterbalance to Jordan Bardella’s rise, the far-right candidate, but today the Prime Minister remains completely absent from the European issue. And, as predicted, the far-right party holds a significant lead over the Presidential majority (10 points). Moreover, the socialist candidate, currently third, continues to climb in the polls and could actually catch-up to Macron’s candidate, Valérie Hayer.

It was therefore all the more important for the President to hold his ground and secure support from the presidential party's electorate. But he probably also hopes to attract

more voters to the ballots and appeal to a larger part of the French population, traditionally with low interest towards EU matters.

The President's entry into the campaign comes a little too late to give him a chance to reverse well-established dynamics. In addition, as in many other countries, EU elections turn more into a referendum on national policy, and in this case on President Macron’s second mandate. A defeat – which would be the second time Macron lost the EU elections to Marine le Pen’s party – might significantly weaken the end of his five-year term.

According to Grégoire Poisson, Head of Public Affairs, EMEA & Head of Brussels Public Affairs : “President Macron’s call on Europe to raise its game on the world stage will translate into higher and more consistent engagement in Brussels by industry, especially in the defense, space and new energy sectors”.