Brussels, my love? Is France becoming the sick man of Europe?

Returning from their August vacation, the French realise they still don’t have a new government. Weeks after the second round of the general elections, talks between President Macron and the political parties have just started in earnest and are already at a standstill. How does a paralyzed France affect decision-making in Europe?

Stefan Grobe and his guests get to the bottom of this: Maria Tadeo, Brussels-based correspondent covering the EU, Peter Hefele, policy director at the Wilfried Martens Centre, and Jérôme Quéré, managing director at the think tank Confrontations Europe.

As the EU gears up for a new legislative term, France is risking becoming “the sick man of Europe”. Weeks after snap legislative elections which ended in gridlock, the country’s political class is still navigating in the dark. A solid majority coalition? Mired in petty finger-pointing. A new prime minister? Nowhere in sight.

President Emmanuel Macron, once seen as Europe’s visionary leader, is looking like a lame duck who nobody wants to follow. Declaring a “truce” for the time of the Paris Olympics, Macron has just recently had talks with the political parties to find a way out of the dead end and form a new government.

But instead of a conciliatory tone, Macron adopted a hardened stance by refusing to appoint a prime minister from the left-wing alliance that won the most parliamentary seats in last month’s elections.

Macron wants to project strength, but it’s France’s paralysis that worries many in the European Union. A Union that is desperately looking for guidance.

The second topic: The mass stabbing by a rejected Syrian asylum seeker that left at least three people dead in the city of Solingen last week has caused shock, consternation and anger in Germany.  Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his government is coming under increased pressure to be tougher on immigration, as the political far right has been milking the attack for their own purposes from the beginning.

At the same time, the EU Commission is carefully defending the integrity of the Schengen Area, the passport-free zone of 450 million citizens, arguably the most tangible achievement of European integration.

Finally, participants discussed the start of the Paralympic Games in the French capital this week. 4400 athletes from 128 countries participate, each of them with a physical or a cognitive disability.

For many, it’s more about compassion and understanding and less about the competition, simply because disabled people are much farther behind in society. Can the Paralympics change that? Or is it just a feel-good moment that will leave the disabled with their problems alone again once the Games are over? And what can we all learn as a society from the Paralympics?