Emmanuel Macron is the antithesis of a populist. A member of the French elite from the day he started attending ENA, he is a rigorous and sometimes imperious intellectual and problem solver. Never for him the Trumpian approach of making decisions solely based on the musings of his gut.
Macron and his party have essentially occupied all of the space in both the right and the left center. Therein lies the potential problem; his principal opponent in the next election is bound to be a populist, because the establishment has no plausible candidate to challenge him. What if he loses? What happens to the EU, and the euro? Would the current political system even survive the election of an irresponsible populist?
Let’s hope we never find out.