马克龙既非撒切尔也非布莱尔

While Emmanuel Macron appears increasingly isolated in Europe over his ambitious plans to reform the eurozone, he is succeeding in advancing his domestic agenda. But what, exactly, does this amount to? At home, his opponents have dubbed him Margaret Macron or Emmanuel Thatcher. Abroad, his showdown with the rail unions has been depicted as his “Thatcher moment”: a test of whether France’s homme de fercan face down striking workers and shake up the country.

尽管埃马纽埃尔马克龙(Emmanuel Macron)改革欧元区的雄图伟志上在欧洲日益孤立无援，但他的国内日程正在成功推进。但是，这到底意味着什么？在国内，他的对手称他为玛格丽特马克龙(Margaret Macron)或埃马纽埃尔撒切尔(Emmanuel Thatcher)。在海外，他与铁路工会的对决被描述为他的“撒切尔时刻”：考验这位法国“铁汉子”能否镇住罢工工人并整顿这个国家。

On the streets Mr Macron is indeed facing the stiffest test yet of his will to “unblock” France. But, in inspiration, the French president is closer to a first-term Tony Blair than to Thatcher — and would probably dislike the comparison to either former UK prime minister.

在法国街头，马克龙“理顺”法国的意志正真正面临着迄今最严峻的考验。但是，在精神上，这位法国总统更像是第一任期的托尼布莱尔(Tony Blair)、而不是撒切尔——而且他很可能不喜欢被比作这两位英国前首相中的任何一位。

It is understandable that his critics depict Mr Macron as a red-blooded capitalist. A former investment banker at Rothschild, trained at the country’s top institutions, he embodies the rootless globalising elite. Today, the left accuses him of dismantling France’s cherished social model. Last month, Forbes magazine put the French president on its cover under the title “Leader of the free markets”.

马克龙的批评者把他描绘成一个热血的资本家，这可以理解。曾经在洛希尔(Rothschild)从事投资银行工作、毕业于法国顶尖院校的马克龙，是无根的全球化精英的典型代表。如今，左翼指责他废除法国宝贵的社会模式。5月，这位法国总统登上了《福布斯》(Forbes)杂志的封面，下面的标题是“自由市场的领袖”。

Mr Macron is indeed unapologetic about backing the private sector in order to encourage investment and job creation. To that end, he has cut taxes on business and the rich, loosened labour rules, and devised schemes to lure tech start-ups to Paris. At the same time, a public spending review, designed to find budget savings, is about to be published. Yet his thinking has little to do with a Thatcherite conception of the state, or of laissez-faire economics.

为鼓励投资和促进就业，马克龙确实在理直气壮地而支持私营部门。为此，他削减了企业和富人的税赋、放宽了劳工规定，并设计了旨在把科技初创企业吸引到巴黎的计划。与此同时，一次旨在设法节省预算的公共支出审核即将公布。然而，他的思想与撒切尔主义的国家观和自由放任经济学几乎毫无关系。

What Mr Macron seeks is a benign way for the state to offer reassurance: a framework of protection that generates the confidence people need in order to feel they can accept or adapt to change. Only then, he judges, will they accept the rules of competition and liberalisation.

马克龙寻求的是国家怎样能以一种良性的方式提供安慰：一套帮助人们树立起接受或适应变革所需的信心的保护措施。他认为，只有这样，他们才会接受竞争和自由化的规则。