Troubled at Home, France’s Macron Remains a Key World Player

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 24, 2022. (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 24, 2022. (Reuters)
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Troubled at Home, France’s Macron Remains a Key World Player

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 24, 2022. (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 24, 2022. (Reuters)

Emmanuel Macron may be weakened at home after parliamentary elections forced him into political maneuvering, but on the international stage the French president has the resources to remain one of the most influential world leaders.

France’s foreign allies closely watched Sunday’s elections where Macron’s alliance won the most seats but lost its majority in the National Assembly, France’s most powerful house of parliament.

The outcome has made the 44-year-old centrist’s life significantly harder at home, rendering the implementation of his agenda - such as pension changes and tax cuts - more difficult. Yet it is not expected to derail his international agenda in the immediate future.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Macron has been at the epicenter of international diplomacy and, despite a historic shift in French politics and growing polarization, experts say that’s not expected to change.

"There will be much more contrast between the pressure he might have at home compared to his freer rein abroad," said Laurie Dundon, a France-based senior associate fellow with the European Leadership Network.

Macron, who is in Brussels for a two-day European Council summit, will next week head to Germany for the G-7 meeting and, the week after that, to Spain for the NATO summit.

The French president holds substantial powers over foreign policy, European affairs and defense. He is also the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces.

France has provided significant financial and military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion and sent its troops to bolster Europe’s defenses on its eastern flank. During the presidential campaign in spring, Macron’s popularity rose because of his leadership role in efforts to end the war: He championed ever tougher sanctions against Moscow while keeping an open line with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been in near-constant contact with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Macron, who won a second term against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in April, even traveled to Kyiv in the week between the two rounds of the vote earlier this month, along with other European leaders.

France’s support for Ukraine is widely popular at home according to opinion polls, and opposition leaders have carefully avoided criticizing it.

The platform of the leftist coalition led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which has become France’s main opposition force, is explicitly in favor of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. On the far right, Le Pen, who has long had ties to Russia, now says she supports a "free Ukraine" while expressing reservations over arms deliveries.

"Foreign policy is not a realm where either Le Pen or Mélenchon want to expend their energy when they have so many domestic issues to challenge Macron on," Dundon said.

"Neither one of them wants to get involved in the messiness of the diplomacy on Russia and Ukraine," she said.

First elected in 2017, the staunchly pro-European Macron has never hidden his ambition for a leadership role in global diplomacy. His reelection in April bolstered his standing as a senior player in Europe as it faces the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the continent and beyond.

France’s strong presidential powers are a legacy from Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s will to have a stable political system throughout the Fifth Republic he established in 1958, after the post-World War II period experienced successions of short-lived, inefficient governments.

The president represents the country abroad, meeting with foreign heads of states and governments. It’s the prime minister, appointed by the president, who is accountable to parliament.

The National Assembly has negligible power over the president’s foreign agenda although it keeps control of government spending.

"Parliament has not been asked to give its opinion on the dispatch of arms to Ukraine, nor on France’s external operations, notably in the Sahel, in the Middle East as part of the anti-ISIS coalition, or in Afghanistan," Nicolas Tenzer, Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, wrote.

Parliament must, however, give its authorization for an extension of these operations after four months, he stressed.

The emboldened opposition, both on the left and on the right, could seek to use parliament’s power to force a debate. Every week, lawmakers are entitled to question government members - but not the president - including about foreign policy. It’s an opportunity to raise criticism on key issues.

But the debate in France is widely expected to remain focused on domestic policies.

In a sign that the president’s attention might be shifting at least temporarily to political realignment at home, Macron hardly mentioned his international agenda on Wednesday when he delivered his first speech since the parliamentary elections. He only briefly referred to the European meeting focusing on Ukraine.

"I will have only one compass: that we move forward for the common good," he told the French.



Israel's Bedouin Communities Use Solar Energy to Stake Claim to Land

This aerial view shows solar panels at an electricity-generation plant for the Bedouin community in the village of Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's southern Negev desert Photo: Menahem KAHANA
This aerial view shows solar panels at an electricity-generation plant for the Bedouin community in the village of Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's southern Negev desert Photo: Menahem KAHANA
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Israel's Bedouin Communities Use Solar Energy to Stake Claim to Land

This aerial view shows solar panels at an electricity-generation plant for the Bedouin community in the village of Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's southern Negev desert Photo: Menahem KAHANA
This aerial view shows solar panels at an electricity-generation plant for the Bedouin community in the village of Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's southern Negev desert Photo: Menahem KAHANA

At the end of a dusty road in southern Israel, beyond a Bedouin village of unfinished houses and the shiny dome of a mosque, a field of solar panels gleams in the hot desert sun.

Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's Negev desert is the home of the Tirabin (also spelled Tarabin) Bedouin tribe, who signed a contract with an Israeli solar energy company to build the installation.

The deal has helped provide jobs for the community as well as promote cleaner, cheaper energy for the country, as the power produced is pumped into the national grid.

Earlier this month, the Al-Ghanami family in the town of Abu Krinat a little further south inaugurated a similar field of solar panels.
Bedouin families have for years tried and failed to hold on to their lands, coming up against right-wing groups and hardline government officials.

Demolition orders issued by Israeli authorities plague Bedouin villages, threatening the traditionally semi-nomadic communities with forced eviction.

But Yosef Abramowitz, co-chair of the non-profit organisation Shamsuna, said solar field projects help them to stake a more definitive claim.
"It secures their land rights forever," he told AFP.

"It's the only way to settle the Bedouin land issue and secure 100 percent renewable energy," he added, calling it a "win, win".

For the solar panels to be built, the land must be registered as part of the Bedouin village, strengthening their claim over it.

Roughly 300,000 Bedouins live in the Negev desert, half of them in places such as Tirabin al-Sana, including some 110,000 who reside in villages not officially recognised by the government.

This aerial view shows solar panels at an electricity-generation plant for the Bedouin community in the village of Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's southern Negev desert
This aerial view shows solar panels at an electricity-generation plant for the Bedouin community in the village of Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's southern Negev desert Photo: Menahem KAHANA
Villages that are not formally recognied are fighting the biggest battle to stay on the land.

Far-right groups, some backed by the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have stepped up efforts in the past two years to drive these families away.
A sharp increase in home demolitions has left the communities vulnerable and whole families without a roof over their heads.

"Since 2023, more than 8,500 buildings have been demolished in these unrecognized villages," Marwan Abu Frieh, from the legal aid organization Adalah, told AFP at a recent protest in Beersheva, the largest city in the Negev.

"Within these villages, thousands of families are now living out in the open, an escalation the Negev has not witnessed in perhaps the last two decades."

Tribes just want to "live in peace and dignity", following their distinct customs and traditions, he said.

Gil Yasur, who also works with Shamsuna developing critical infrastructure in Bedouin villages, said land claims issues were common among Bedouins across the Negev.
Families who include a solar project on their land, however, stand a better chance of securing it, he added.

"Then everyone will benefit -- the landowners, the country, the Negev," he said. "This is the best way to move forward to a green economy."

In Um Batin, a recognised village, residents are using solar energy in a different way –- to power a local kindergarten all year round.

Until last year, the village relied on power from a diesel generator that polluted the air and the ground where the children played.

Now, a hulking solar panel shields the children from the sun as its surface sucks up the powerful rays, keeping the kindergarten in full working order.

"It was not clean or comfortable here before," said Nama Abu Kaf, who works in the kindergarten.
"Now we have air conditioning and a projector so the children can watch television."

Hani al-Hawashleh, who oversees the project on behalf of Shamsuna, said the solar energy initiative for schools and kindergartens was "very positive".

"Without power you can't use all kinds of equipment such as projectors, lights in the classrooms and, on the other hand, it saves costs and uses clean energy," he said.

The projects are part of a pilot scheme run by Shamsuna.

Asked if there was interest in expanding to other educational institutions that rely on polluting generators, he said there were challenges and bureaucracy but he hoped to see more.

"We need people to collaborate with us to move this forward," he said, adding that he would "love to see a solar energy system in every village".