Pensions: who is Caligula, the “crazy” Roman emperor with whom Matilda Pano compared Emmanuel Macron?

Jupiter, Vulcan, Hephaestus… Comparisons to Emmanuel Macron have stuck since his entry into the Elysee Palace in 2017. But Mathilde Pano chose to use a different metaphor when discussing the head of state’s policies on Tuesday. Faced with his counterparts in the National Assembly, in the middle of the preliminary meeting, Caligula was chosen by the elected representative of rebellious France to vote on two votes of no confidence.

“Here and there we read that Emmanuel Macron dreams of himself in Jesus Christ. He looks more like Caligula, this emperor drunk with his power, ”she said. The third Roman emperor, he reigned from 37 to 41. An empire marked by “barbarism,” as described by Suetonius, a high-ranking Roman official of the 1st and 2nd centuries, author of The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. , a collection of biographies.

“The president is overwhelmed”

When he came to power, the son of the very popular Germanicus gave hope to the people – after many years of terror in the era of the emperor Tiberius – supported by a relative, a prefect bearing the name … Macron. In the section on Caligula, Suetonius first talks about his family background and his beginnings: “When he entered Rome, by the unanimous consent of the senators and the people who rushed into their assembly, he wielded sovereign power”, speaking of “tremendous power”. joy” in the Empire. But the rest of the portrait is much more corrosive.

Then Suetonius recalls “his envious malice and cruel pride”, talks about “his passion for money” or even about “his tricks aimed at making people believe in his courage and victories”.

“Like Caligula, the president is obsessed with excess. He doesn’t listen to anyone anymore, condemned the president of the LFI group in the Assembly. He refused to accept the Inter-Union, ignored historical demonstrations for fifty years, ordered forced passage and now barricaded himself in his palace. Like him, he desires the impossible. Neither the commitment to his project nor the commitment to his reform is out of this world, but he will act as if he believes that Emmanuel Macron has the wrong people, ”she scourged.

“Mad Emperor”

In May 2020, the historian Franck Ferrand mentioned for Europe 1 this “mad emperor” and a radical change in human behavior, a time stricken with a “sickness” whose nature has never been established. “The consequences (…) will be catastrophic. (…) Little by little, Caligula loses all confidence and becomes the laughingstock of all his armies, as well as the people, ”he said.

On Tuesday, in his tirade to deputies, the rebellious elected official went so far as to quote Caligula de Camus, a play by the French playwright published in 1944 and inspired by the work of Suetonius. ” He says : to manage is to steal, everyone knows that. But there is a way. For me I will fly frankly. Yes, Emmanuel Macron will frankly steal two years of life from all the French, ”Mathilde Pano lamented.

“The desire to defeat Emmanuel Macron and his reforms has become contagious,” she finally assessed in front of elected officials. Even the emperor Caligula was defeated. It was after I looked in the mirror. Let Emmanuel Macron contemplate his reflection, he will soon see his fall there.