Macron’s test — Planes for Ukraine — Biden’s Irish joke

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DRIVING THE DAY: MACRON FACES DOMESTIC TEST

HIGH COURT SET TO RULE ON MACRON PENSION REFORM: Fresh from sparking a global controversy over his comments about Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron faces a major legal hurdle at home today as judges from France’s constitutional court are set to rule on the legality of his unpopular pension reform.

Blessing in disguise: Judges from the court, which is headed by former Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, are expected to knock back parts of the text — which could actually be a good thing for the embattled president, Giorgio Leali and Pauline de Saint Remy write in this report from Paris.

Low profile: Indeed, having the court delete certain less controversial provisions could offer the president and his ministers a way out of the conflict that has dogged France for weeks. “It’s not in our interest that the government is a triumphalist winner,” said a senior member of Macron’s party who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive matters candidly. Macron has promised he’d meet union leaders, while three government advisers told our colleagues at Playbook Paris that he would also go on TV next week.

Fisticuffs: The high-stakes ruling comes after fresh strikes and protests on Thursday. While overall attendance was down, the intensity of the demonstrations remains high — with protesters clashing with police on Paris’ Place de la Bastille, others storming the offices of luxury goods giant LVMH and still others barricading the street in front of the constitutional court with trash cans.

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WHY SO ANGRY? In the wake of the January 6 assault on Capitol Hill in Washington and the takeover of government buildings by pro-Bolsonaro protesters in Brasília earlier this year, Playbook asked Tom Carothers, co-head of Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program, which tracks protests globally, why France seems to have so many — and why they appear to be growing more violent.

Champions du monde: When it comes to the number of protests and their intensity, “France is an outlier in global terms,” said Carothers. “We’ve collected more data on protests in France than any other country in the world.”

Going for the jugular: On top of being more frequent than other countries, he said protests in France also tend to be more “intense” — read, violent. “When you look at violent protests, they’re almost all in repressive countries. In liberal democracies, you usually see that around ‘jugular’ issues such as race in the United States or social spending in France.”

Bad cops: France has repeatedly been singled out by rights groups, as well as the Council of Europe, over heavy-handed policing tactics. But repressive policing doesn’t explain why the French protest so much more than their neighbors.

Losing faith: In addition to the legacy of the French Revolution, central to the Republic’s identity, there’s the fact that faith in political parties in France is in free-fall, creating a sense of frustration whose only outlet is on the streets. “French people feel less attachment to political parties — it’s night and day compared to Germany or the Netherlands,” Carothers said.

It’s coming out somehow: “The result is that people who are unhappy about something have less ability to channel that frustration through a party,” he said.

Where they draw the line: Finally, there’s the fact that France is under constant pressure to reduce public expenditure. And while governments in the U.K. and elsewhere slash public spending without unleashing Armageddon, in France it’s a “jugular” issue that brings people out into the streets.

ALLIES BACK TAIWAN

TAIWAN COMMENTS KEEP DRIVING GLOBAL CONVERSATION: Like a rock thrown into a pond, ripples from Macron’s Taiwan comments kept spreading around the world Thursday as Germany’s foreign minister and Britain’s prime minister and chancellor all sought to distance themselves from the French leader’s comments.

Laugh together, cry together: Speaking during her own visit to China, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the EU “cannot be indifferent” to tensions over Taiwan, while stressing that close partnerships with partners with shared values like the U.S. would be crucial “when we face our own security threats” such as with Russia.

Vulnerable: “We are currently seeing how important it is to have partners around the world who share our values at our side when we face our own security threats. That is why it is so important for us, because we are vulnerable as Germany and as the European Union, that we cannot be indifferent to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” Baerbock said in Tianjin, where she began a three-day trip to China, Stuart Lau and Hans von der Burchard report.

Brits chime in: U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also appeared to distance himself from Macron, saying that London shared the concerns of its “closest allies” with regard to Taiwan’s security, and naming Beijing as a threat to the Britain’s economic security. His Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told POLITICO that Europe and the United States need to “stand together” to defend “democracy and freedom.”

RUSSIAN WAR

FIGHTER JET UPDATE: Despite dismal relations, Germany has given the green light for Poland to deliver Soviet-designed fighter jets to Ukraine, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Thursday. This concerns five MiG-29 jets from old East German stocks that Germany gave Poland in 2002, Wilhelmine Preussen reports.

Cyber update: Russian hackers have been extracting information from ministries and diplomatic entities of EU and NATO countries. Details here.

SANCTIONS WORK: Hungary is withdrawing from the Russia-linked International Investment Bank, a day after the U.S. sanctioned it, Lili Bayer reports.

WHAT THE LEAKED PENTAGON DOCS TELL US ABOUT EUROPE: Europe has special forces on the ground in Ukraine … Poland and Slovenia are providing nearly half of the tanks heading to Kyiv … and Hungary may be letting arms through its airspace. Those are just some of the eye-catching details about Europe’s participation in the war buried in a 53-page dossier POLITICO reviewed from a leak of unverified U.S. military intelligence documents. Cristina Gallardo and Jacopo Barigazzi have the full details.

Suspect arrested: The FBI arrested a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, on Thursday in connection with the leak of the classified Pentagon documents. Teixeira is expected to appear in federal court in Boston today. More here. The New York Times has a deep dive on why Teixeira may have leaked the documents.

What Ukraine is mad about … officials are fuming over the leak — not least because they reveal U.S. pessimism regarding Kyiv’s chances of capturing significant amounts of territory when it launches its expected counteroffensive, reports Jamie Dettmer.

CONTENT BEHIND THE NEW IRON CURTAIN: From St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, a new iron curtain has descended — and a majority of Russians seem content to be stuck behind it, writes Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in this opinion piece for POLITICO.

PERSONNEL FILES

WHAT’S NEXT FOR MARGRETHE VESTAGER? “There comes a time for any Brussels heavyweight when they bow out of the heights of European politics and either resign themselves to a career in the half-light of semi-anonymity or extend their reach to prestigious international roles,” writes my colleague Sam Stolton in this essential deep-dive profile on the Commission’s competition czar. “Of Vestager’s predecessors, Mario Monti eventually became Italian prime minister, Neelie Kroes mutated into a speed-dial lobbyist, Joaquín Almunia just stopped — and dabbled in academia and think-tankery,” Sam writes. But Vestager doesn’t understand why people are wondering what she will do after the 2024 European election. “I won’t judge your timing,” Vestager told Sam. “But I don’t even ask myself these types of questions.”

MICHEL CLAPS BACK — ‘LES INSTITUTIONS, C’EST MOI’: Council President Charles Michel came out swinging following a report he’d spent more than €400,000 on a single private jet flight to China. “By attacking me, you are attacking the institution and its 3,000 civil servants who work sincerely at the heart of the EU, with high standards in terms of governance,” he told Belgian paper Le Soir. Travel “costs more than before because the situation requires it, but there are no lavish expenses. There is simply the need to perform international actions in the interest of Europe.”

SLOVAK PM CALLS ON CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR TO RESIGN: Prime Minister Eduard Heger urged the head of Slovakia’s central bank, Peter Kažimír, to step down after he was convicted in a bribery case and fined €100,000. The case concerns “suspicion of corrupt criminal activity in connection with tax audits against several commercial companies” when Kažimír was finance minister in a previous government, prosecutors said in February.

Kažimír denies wrongdoing, Izabella Kaminska reports, and has refused to quit. “I’m innocent, despite the court’s order, which I have yet to receive,” Kažimír said Thursday in Washington, where he has been attending the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings.

Extra EU angle: The central banker was shortlisted in 2017 to be the next president of the Eurogroup.

BIDEN FIXES ‘BLACK AND TAN’ GAFFE … It’s never too late. Having made headlines by mixing up the All Blacks, the Kiwi national rugby team, and the Black and Tans, an infamous British military unit, U.S. President Joe Biden did his best to set the record straight. “I always have a little bit of Ireland close by in the Oval Office. I have the rugby ball signed by the Irish rugby team, the ball the team played when they beat the All Blacks in Dublin in 2021,” Biden said to a packed chamber of more than 200 lawmakers in Ireland. That set off a giant laugh as Biden — who practically shouted “All Blacks” to show he actually did know the difference — pumped his fist in triumph, Shawn Pogatchnik reports. The president is due to fly back to the United States later today. More on the visit here.

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IN OTHER NEWS

FAIR BORDER TAX: The European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets will vote Monday on a report on introducing additional new resources to finance the EU. One of the proposals is a fair border tax, aiming to tackle extreme poverty and social dumping. The idea is to make companies manufacturing their products outside of the EU pay a duty for workers who are paid a wage below the poverty level.

Bangladesh trip: One of the co-rapporteurs of the proposal, MEP Valérie Hayer (Renew), went to Bangladesh to discuss the proposal with stakeholders, including fast-fashion retailers. “The safety conditions and wages are improving, owing to the international pressure, although they are still very low,” Hayer told Playbook’s Ketrin Jochecová in an interview upon her return on Thursday.

Context: In 2013, a garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing more than a thousand people. In the wake of that tragedy, there has been greater scrutiny of the fashion industry’s practises — but this has only led to small improvements in workers’ conditions. Still, Hayer said, “All of those I met are very positive, they want the conditions to improve and they are expecting the proposal.”

This proposal would only target the tip of the iceberg. Over 80 percent of Bangladesh’s labor force is employed in the informal economy, according to the International Labor Organization. “The safety conditions there are much worse, I went to visit one of the local factories, but could not enter, because it’s too dangerous,” Hayer said.

MEPS CALL ON DENMARK TO U-TURN ON SYRIA SAFE ZONES: More than 40 MEPs have written to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Minister for Immigration and Integration Kaare Dybvad calling on them to U-turn on last month’s decision to add Latakia and Tartus to the list of Syrian regions to which refugees can be safely returned. Renew Europe MEP Nathalie Loiseau, the Parliament’s standing rapporteur for Syria, tweeted that she “respectfully but completely” disagreed with Denmark’s move.

RENEW MEPs WANT TO GRILL TIKTOK CEO: Renew group MEPs want to treat TikTok’s CEO to the same grilling he got in the U.S. Congress last month. The group is pushing to invite Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean businessman who runs the addictive video-sharing app, to the European Parliament to give him a stern talking to about data protection and EU law.

Chewing it over: Renew’s President Stéphane Séjourné and Vice Chair Ioan-Dragoș Tudorache sent a letter — seen by POLITICO’s Eddy Wax and Clothilde Goujard — to Parliament President Roberta Metsola on March 30 asking for permission to invite the TikTok chief to a joint hearing with five committees. The pair wrote that the reason for the invitation is “so we can learn more about TikTok’s practices and remind Mr Shou Zi Chew of his obligations under EU law.” Renew raised the letter in Thursday’s Conference of Presidents meeting.

It’s a long shot: But the European Parliament doesn’t have the power to summon company execs — and MEPs are still waiting to hear back from Twitter chief Elon Musk, whom they invited for hearings in December 2022.

GOING NUCLEAR: Efforts to block nuclear energy from the EU’s green power plans could undermine the fight against climate change, France’s atomic energy czar warned in an interview with my colleague Gabriel Gavin. The call comes as Germany prepares to shut down its final three nuclear reactors this weekend.

FRIDAY FUNNY: Paul Dallison’s Declassified humor column is on the return of the (problematic) king and the end of the teenage hacker.

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AGENDA

— Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis in Washington, D.C.; participates in the plenary of the International Monetary and Financial Committee; participates in board meeting with representatives of companies within the National Foreign Trade Council; participates in ministerial meeting of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.

— Commissioner Mairead McGuinness in Washington D.C.; meets with Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Rohit Chopra; participates in the financial regulatory round table chaired by Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Janet Yellen.

— G7 Ministerial Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment in Sapporo, Japan. Commissioners Virginijus Sinkevičius and Kadri Simson to attend. More info.

— France’s constitutional court rules on Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms.

BRUSSELS CORNER

UNIVERSITY OF KENT CLOSES BRUSSELS CAMPUS: The Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS), run by the University of Kent, is abruptly closing after 25 years. Students and staff received an email informing them the uni will be “winding down its operation in Brussels from September 2023,” before completely closing by spring 2024 due to financial difficulties. Shortly after, the webpages listing Brussels courses were deleted, and letters terminating staff contracts were sent out. “To date, the university has not provided adequate justification for the closure of the campus,” the BSIS Graduate Student Union said in a statement.

Anguish: BSIS students have set up a Twitter account to share reactions, and sent a representative of the student body to the university’s headquarters in Canterbury to deliver a statement. “We as students witnessed some of the most respected people, our peers and our professors, break down in front of us, having their lives changed in a span of one email. It was shocking, it was heart-breaking, and it was absolutely infuriating,” said the representative.

Consequences: Those who are enrolled in the uni are worried about their future study and job prospects, while those on student visas are concerned about their legal status. University of Kent Vice Chancellor Karen Cox is scheduled to travel to Brussels on Monday to discuss the situation with students and the staff (though a previous visit was canceled). Gary Hughes, head of the uni’s press relations, told Playbook’s Ketrin Jochecová that “we are fully committed to doing all we can to support and accommodate” the affected staff and students.

BELGIAN PHARMACY NEWS: Patients in Belgium who routinely take five or more medications can now ask pharmacists to help them reduce the number of meds they take. More info here.

BRUSSELS MARATHON: This year’s event will take place on October 1 and begin at Place de Brouckère rather than the Atomium. Register here.

CULTURE FIX: A new exhibition at the CIVA museum explores Art Nouveau in Belgium and reveals how the movement — also known as Style Congo — was used as colonial propaganda. Find out more.

BIRTHDAYS: MEPs Niklas Nienaß, Maxette Pirbakas, Eric Andrieu and Bronis Ropė; Former MEP Udo Voigt; Google’s Al Verney; Council of the EU’s Charles de Marcilly; Handelsblatt’s Martin Greive; Hussein Sattaf of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency; Kornelia Kozovska, spokesperson for the Eurogroup president.

Celebrating Saturday: POLITICO’s Suzanne Lynch; MEP Beata Szydło, a former Polish PM; Former MEP Eugen Freund; French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire; European Commission’s Margarita Nikolova, Daniela Bularda and Edson Ramos; Marek Evison, director of the EPP Campaigns Directorate; King Philippe of Belgium; Ivo Boscarol, founder and CEO of Pipistrel and a POLITICO 28 alum.

Celebrating Sunday: MEPs Clare Daly, Andreas Schieder and Irene Tinagli; Former MEP Martina Anderson; Portuguese diplomat José Fernando Costa Pereira; Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg; U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken turns the big 6-0.

THANKS TO: Eddy Wax, Playbook reporter Ketrin Jochecová and our producer Grace Stranger.

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