Emmanuel Macron as A Poker Player
Like Tony Blair, Emmanuel Macron is a posh boy who has convinced the country that he is the man of the people. Unlike David Cameron who tried the same trick, but was found out by the nation in good time and when he made a bluff call – The E.U Referendum, and lost his job at the time he should have been ‘king on the hill’.
Emmanuel Macron, is the type of player who will play loosely to start off with and then tighten up once he has set the table tone. He did this convincingly with Donald Trump. Donald Trump thought he could project US power by being pleasant and flirty with the international allies. Macron gave him a public slap by deliberately holding his hand in a handshake just a little too long to show that he can also be an ‘Alpha Male’ type.
The media picked it up and showed Donald Trump that bluster is what it is, empty wind. Macron gambled that Donald Trump would be in constant trouble because of his ties to Russia, so, Donald Trump will always be weak in international peoples eyes and will need France to give him credibility among the permanent ‘5’ (USA, UK, Russia, France and China) of the UN, since the UK is on the tip of a change of government and Donald Trump does not want to risk rejection from the Queen and the UK political elites as he is seen as a clown.
Unlike Tony Blair, Emmanuel Macron has created a new party. While Tony Blair tried to convert an old party into a new party. Emmanuel Macron has started from scratch, therefore, giving himself almost emperor type power as his party will follow his lead.
Like the early aggressive poker player, he has clearly set the tone but too much early aggression will soon be called, and, this is when the danger appears. If a another aggressive player decides to have a go then it could mean losing all his chips and be out of the game.
Possible players who could have a go would be Putin, Trump, May or more likely a leader from a former french colony who goes whole heartedly against French national interest. He may win against the challenger but it will have created so much damage to Macron’s and France’s body politic.
Time will tell how he occupies the big stage that has been given him by May, Trump and Merkel’s (she has an election coming up) situation.