Albert Zennou: “Emmanuel Macron and the limits of performative speech”

In the beginning was the word. Certainly, words can be creative; they can initiate, construct, and give life to an idea, a project, a program. Words may be at the beginning, but for a politician, especially when they exercise power, their words must be followed by real, measurable, quantifiable, and concrete effects. Performative speech is essential. Tuesday evening, on TF1, Emmanuel Macron stuck to words. The only problem: he is not at the beginning of his term. Eight years after his election, he has transformed himself into a commentator on his own presidency and, sometimes, his own impotence.

Since ancient Greece and Rome, speech has shaped political life. The agora, the Roman assembly, and since the modern era, parliaments, have given speeches and rhetoric a special place. Tribunes have left their mark on history with their voices. As Hannah Arendt wrote: for a politician, speaking means making oneself visible. And it is in this way that…