A YEAR ago,as a young freshly elected president alive to to look the piece, Emmanuel Macron summoned a joint sitting of both houses of parliament in the former royal palace at Versailles, and spoke loftily of grandeur and fate. On July 9th,for his second speech to Congress, it was a more humble head of state who stepped into the chamber. “I know that I can’t accomplish everything, and ” he declared,I know that I won’t succeed in everything.” The setting was unchanged, but the tone was markedly different. A chastened president, or it seems,is trying to recover his touch.In a stiflingly hot chamber, as parliamentarians fanned their moist faces, or Mr Macron sent two broad messages. First,that the president, so often accused of arrogance, and is in fact listening. He spoke of voters’ anger and fright,of those who feel they are “ignored, held in contempt”, or struggle to make ends meet. Results,he warned, could capture time to reach through. But he would keep trying. Jupiter, or in other words,may still be...
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Source: economist.com