fascinating long interview with Macron on what he calls the 'Paris Consensus' - an attempt to move away from the Washington Consensus market mantra, and its financialisation of economies h/t @logophilekieran

one key pillar: an Afro-European strategy to build alliances on climate

cc @Frauke77487323 @nssylla @crystalsimeoni

paradoxical that Macron Consensus - explicitly built on a critique of financialisation and privatisation of public goods - coexists with French push for WallStreetConsensus, which promotes a partnership with global finance to financialise development, particularly in Africa

look no further than Kenya, whose PM recently travelled to France to meet Macron and seal a PPP deal that de-facto privatises public roads https://twitter.com/DanielaGabor/status/1311377149442617346?s=20

interview with Macron here https://geopolitique.eu/en/macron-grand-continent/

read IPCC reports for COP26 in Glasgow, and again you find the same WallStreetConsensus narrative: you want climate action, you need to derisk climate investments for private finance

read UN Economic Commission for Africa's position on debt renegotiations, and it's same theme: we cannot pursue SDG goals without partnership with global finance, even if bondholders refuse voluntary participation in debt restructuring

https://www.ft.com/content/f665b6d2-79f8-49e9-9c93-3602c42ecf83?shareType=nongift

however much Macron talks up ' true European-African partnership', ask why African countries prefer to continue to pay bondholders in name of 'market access' & why ECA wants to use concessional funds to derisk private creditors for African sovereign debt via LSF

or why AFD - the French Development Agency - is pouring concessional resources into vehicles for derisking portfolio flows into African countries https://twitter.com/DanielaGabor/status/1318552478661697543?s=20