Call it the “I have understood you” style of political rhetoric. To get the idea, bring your mind back to the long-ago days of 2008, when the chattering class in the United States projected all its hopes on one Senator Barack Obama. He was a star because it was thought he could shift the nation's political center of gravity decisively to the left, and he was a star because he supposedly could transcend partisan divisions. He was progressive, moderate and even conservative all at once, and many right-of-center types swooned over his ability to phrase conservative arguments the way conservatives themselves would make them.
The French leader Emmanuel Macron, a perpetual “A” student who rose to the top of fields like investment banking as a beloved protégé of senior mentors, then became a politician who was progressive one day and conservative the next, may be the best practitioner of this style since the 44th president of the United States.
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