Emmanuel Macron is keen on green-washing. Like henna in the hair it can keep one in line with fashion, but careful all you who want to see our planet saved, like henna it also fades as politicians play footsie with the public’s hopes and hide their inaction behind mountains of vague promises.
The u-turn that isn’t
President Macron is already well-known as a specialist in the u-turn that isn’t. For the last two months, the nods and winks that slip out from the discussions within the Macronie via tame media commentators, political correspondents or even carefully placed remarks by a senior activist or two, have all been heavily hinting that, as the traffic lights for the French economy turn green while the Covid lockdown eases off, their colour will not just be for “Go”.
The great, but deeply cynical, project for keeping his presidential ship afloat over the next two years is to do to the green movement what he did to the social democratic left in his drive for the Elysée three years ago: suck the life blood out of the movement, adopt its clothing, ape its fashions and try to co-opt some of its leading figures.
