{"id":8220,"date":"2022-01-01T18:20:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T18:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises"},"modified":"2022-01-01T19:13:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T19:13:16","slug":"muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises","title":{"rendered":"Muted Macron welcomes 2022 as crucial for Europe in speech without surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>France took over the rotating presidency of the European Union at midnight on Saturday, affording President Emmanuel Macron the chance to pose as the EU&#8217;s de facto leader in the run-up to national elections due in April. In his televised New Year&#8217;s address, the French president made no direct reference to his intention to compete for a second five-year stint as national leader.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The year 2022 must be a turning point for Europe,&#8221; President Macron said in a New Year&#8217;s Eve address.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to the French EU presidency, he promised that &#8220;you can count on my complete commitment to ensure that this period, which comes around every 13 years, is a time of progress for you&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The centrist, who made his Europhile views a key part of his political campaign when winning the presidency in 2017, is hoping it will again serve him in elections scheduled for April 10 and 24.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The EU presidency gives him a welcome platform to put his European record to the forefront and differentiate himself from his rivals and bring new proposals, new ideas to the table,&#8221; said Claire Demesmay, an expert at the Marc-Bloch think-tank in Berlin.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The French like nothing more than the image or impression of France being at the controls,&#8221; said Pierre Sellal, a former French diplomat at the French mission to the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>To mark the start of the six-month presidency, France illuminated historic buildings across the country including the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe in the blue of the EU flag on New Year&#8217;s Eve.<\/p>\n<p>Other observers have noted that the French logo for the presidency includes the letters U and E for &#8220;Union Europeene&#8221; with a grey arrow in the middle that appears to create another letter &#8212; a sideways M for Macron.<\/p>\n<p>Opportunities and risks<\/p>\n<p>Although the French presidency of the EU, the first since 2008, offers opportunities for Macron, it is also seen by observers as holding risks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\">Gambia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. France took over the rotating presidency of the European Union at midnight on Saturday, affording President Emmanuel Macron the chance to pose as the EU&#8217;s de facto leader in the run-up to national elections due in April. In his televised New Year&#8217;s address, the French president made no direct reference to his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[2355,2361,260,3736,3735],"class_list":["post-8220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia","tag-muted-macron","tag-surprises"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Muted Macron welcomes 2022 as crucial for Europe in speech without surprises - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"France took over the rotating presidency of the European Union at midnight on Saturday, affording President Emmanuel Mac ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Muted Macron welcomes 2022 as crucial for Europe in speech without surprises\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"France took over the rotating presidency of the European Union at midnight on Saturday, affording President Emmanuel Mac ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-01T18:20:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-01T19:13:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/01\/img-61d0a7b187d20.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Muted Macron welcomes 2022 as crucial for Europe in speech without surprises\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-01T18:20:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-01T19:13:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises\"},\"wordCount\":346,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/01\/img-61d0a7b187d20.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\",\"Muted Macron\",\"surprises\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/muted-macron-welcomes-2022-as-crucial-for-europe-in-speech-without-surprises\",\"name\":\"Muted Macron welcomes 2022 as crucial for Europe in speech without surprises - 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