Emmanuel macron

There are four major power blocs in the world — the United States, Russia, China and the EU. Of these, only the EU does not provide for its own defence and security. Remarkably, nearly 75 years after the end of the second world war, Europe is still heavily dependent upon the United States for its defence. But it is hardly surprising that, in the Trump era, pressure has grown for an autonomous European defence policy. The question of how Europe is to be defended in the post-Brexit era has yet to be examined. The EU has, for some years, been seeking ‘strategic autonomy’, though it is never wholly clear precisely what that means.

Who needs the Comédie-Française when there is Emmanuel Macron in the Élysée? France's recall last week of its ambassador from Italy for consultation was pure theatre on the part of the president. And it was a decision more for the benefit of his domestic audience than for the coalition government in Rome. In a statement explaining why Christian Masset had been ordered home, the foreign office said that for several months France has been subjected to outrageous statements that have created a 'serious situation which is raising questions about the Italian government’s intentions towards France.' France blamed the recall on Luigi Di Maio, the Italian deputy prime minster, who flew to Paris last week to meet members of the Yellow Vest protest movement.

In normal circumstances, Emmanuel Macron would welcome a trip to Marrakech in December as an opportunity to escape cold Paris and enjoy some North African hospitality. But his date in the Moroccan city next week could not have come at a worse time. France is burning and Macron's presence on Monday at the United Nations intergovernmental conference in order to sign France up to the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration could add to the conflagration. The United Nations states that the global compact "comprises 23 objectives for better managing migration at local, national, regional and global levels". The document has been more than two years in the making and its aim is to help the 258 million migrants around the world living outside their country of birth.

Emmanuel Macron's hosting of sixty world leaders in Paris last weekend to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice has turned into a public relations disaster. The president of the Republic not only infuriated Donald Trump, but he also put the Serbian president's nose out of joint. According to reports, Aleksandar Vucic was not amused with the seating arrangements at Sunday's service of remembrance. While Kosovo's president Hashim Thaçi was behind the leaders of France, Germany, Russia, and the United States, Vucic was shunted off to the side. "You can imagine how I felt," Thaci is quoted as telling the Serbian media. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing before me, knowing the sacrifice that the Serbian people made in World War One.