Emmanuel macron

Tuesday

Matthew Lynn

The euro is the source of Macron’s troubles

From our UK edition

A new interior minister. A new agriculture and culture minister. There wasn’t, despite some speculation, a new prime minister, but there will be lots of new fresh faces around the cabinet table. France’s dynamic young president Emmanuel Macron has finally re-launched his government after a wave of resignations in a bid to kick-start phase two of his term of office, restore some order to an increasingly chaotic administration, and, probably not co-incidentally, to rescue his tumbling poll ratings. The trouble is, his real problem is not the team around him. Nor is it his style, or resistance to his reforms, although both might cause controversy. In fact, it is becoming painfully obvious that France’s real problem is the euro.

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is quick to take on nationalism. What about Islamism?

From our UK edition

On Sunday, I reached the summit of the col de Riou in the Pyrénées to find a shepherd tending his flock. He asked if I'd seen a bear on my way up through the forest. One of his sheep was missing and he suspected a bear was responsible. I'd seen no sign of one but that got us talking, and I asked what he thought about the government repopulating the Pyrénées with bears. He shrugged and said the time for protesting was past. The bears are here to stay and that was that. One could say the same about Salafists, I reflected that evening, as I read Le Journal du Dimanche. Spread across two pages of the newspaper was an interview with Hakim El Karoui, the author of a report published last week by the Institut Montaigne entitled 'The Fabric of Islamism".

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Conservatism and the radical centre

From our UK edition

Every so often, usually on Twitter, you hear calls for a new centrist party. The Tories have gone Brexit bonkers, runs the argument, and Labour hard-left – surely most people are in the middle? And look at Emmanuel Macron: by sheer self-belief he won the presidency and leads a majority parliamentary party that did not exist three years ago. So don’t we need a new centrist force in Britain? I’m not sure that we do, and I explain why in my Daily Telegraph column today. Let’s look at Macron, and what he’s trying to do. Reject high taxes for the rich, on the pragmatic grounds that they don’t raise revenue.

Friday

Gavin Mortimer

How Macron is reviving Marine Le Pen’s fortunes

From our UK edition

It says much about Europe's political establishment that Marine Le Pen has been charged over photographs she tweeted in 2015 to illustrate the barbarity of Isis. It was a stupid stunt of Le Pen's, but not one worthy of prosecution and the political martyrdom that will ensue if she is convicted. Le Pen is facing the possibility of three years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (£66,000) because last year the European Parliament voted to strip her of immunity, thereby allowing a French judge to charge her with distributing "violent messages that incite terrorism or...seriously harm human dignity". Meanwhile, as politicians and lawmakers conspire to send Le Pen down for tweeting the photos, the people who did the killing have been able to set up home in Europe.

Thursday

Jonathan Miller

Macron’s summer of discontent

‘It could be argued that getting out of the office to beat up some leftists is a good way to work up an appetite for lunch,’ one of France’s more cynical millionaires tells me, admiring Alexandre Benalla, 26, a recently fired security aide to President Emmanuel Macron. Benalla had rushed from his office at the Elysée Palace to brawl with members of La France Insoumise, the tattered remnants of the French left, who were demonstrating outside. Tally-ho! Right on. Except that you really are not allowed to do that, especially in the age of camera phones. And the more that comes out about this story, the weirder it becomes. What did Macron know and when did he know it? Who protected Benalla? Who leaked the story to Le Monde?

benalla macron macron's
Jonathan Miller

En garde!

‘It could be argued that getting out of the office to beat up some leftists is a good way to work up an appetite for lunch,’ one of France’s more cynical millionaires tells me, admiring Alexandre Benalla, 26, a recently fired security aide to President Emmanuel Macron. Benalla had rushed from his office at the Elysée Palace to brawl with members of La France Insoumise, the tattered remnants of the French left, who were demonstrating outside. Tally-ho! Right on. Except that you really are not allowed to do that, especially in the age of camera phones. And the more that comes out about this story, the weirder it becomes. What did Macron know and when did he know it? Who protected Benalla? Who leaked the story to Le Monde?

Thursday

Gavin Mortimer

What the Benalla scandal reveals about Macron’s failing presidency

From our UK edition

The feel-good factor Emmanuel Macron hoped would surge through France following their World Cup win has failed to materialise. The president milked the success for all it was worth but he has been swiftly brought down to earth with a bump. It was actually more of a thump, administered by his now ex-chief bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, who was caught on camera beating a protestor while dressed as a policeman during a May Day march earlier this year. Since the story broke eight days ago, it has dominated the French media. Had the president's people come clean the day the footage was first broadcast by Le Monde, the story wouldn't have developed in the way that it has.

Wednesday

Charles Moore

Emmanuel Macron was right to scold his over-friendly fan

From our UK edition

Obviously, one mocks little President Macron for telling a teenager to call him ‘Monsieur le President’. How long before the French will have to say ‘Vive l’Empereur!’? But I do have a sneaking sympathy for the man one must not call ‘Manu’. The presumption of modern culture that everyone is on first-name terms makes people confused because they come to believe they really are friends with ‘Harry and Meghan’, or whoever it may be. The famous people thus addressed are also unhappy, because they cannot remember who they do and don’t know, and because they feel that people are trying to own them. Full, formal modes of address provide a ‘Noli me tangere’ which preserves sanity on both sides. Look at the Queen.

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is restoring France’s dignity

From our UK edition

Has there ever been a time when the leaders of France and Great Britain are so diametrically opposed in character and style? One is weak and indecisive, a Prime Minister who avoids confrontation, the other is forthright and forceful, a president who relishes a fight. Emmanuel Macron seems to take a perverse delight in upsetting his compatriots; one can detect in his behaviour a healthy contempt for a section of French society. These are the slackers to whom he referred in a speech last year, the coasters, the self-entitled, the people he believes have grown up believing the state will look after them, whatever.

Friday

Jonathan Miller

Macron’s defeat of the railway unions is as historic as Thatcher’s victory over Scargill

From our UK edition

Who would have thought it? French president Emmanuel Macron has defeated the French railway unions. His victory is as symbolic as that of Thatcher’s defeat of the miners and suggests that the days when unions in France can hold the country to ransom are over. Those who initially dismissed this putative Napoleon as an empty suit have gravely underestimated him. The nationalised French railway is not merely a transportation system. It is a quintessential expression of France itself. Globally admired for its pioneering high-speed TGV intercity trains, it has been a pillar of the national economy, a mighty symbol of the unitary French state and a monument to the enduring power of trade unions. It was also considered irreformable. Well, that might once have been true.

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer

Will Macron meet his match in Marion Maréchal?

From our UK edition

Last summer, a French magazine warned on its front cover that 250,000 migrants were headed their way in 2018. 'Alarmist', cried the magazine's opponents but events in Italy may make it a prescient forecast. The declaration from the incoming Italian coalition government that they intend to deport half a million illegal immigrants from their shores will send a shiver through the Élysée Palace. How many will wait to be rounded up and repatriated? And how many will flee towards France, adding to the already desperate situation in Paris and Calais? As I wrote last July in the Spectator, Emmanuel Macron can grandstand on the global stage as much as he likes. He can also push through his economic reforms.

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 26 April 2018

From our UK edition

Home No. 10 insisted: ‘We will not be staying in the customs union or joining a customs union.’ The undertaking came after a defeat for the government on the matter in the House of Lords and before a vote in the House of Commons. The government proposed two alternatives: one being a ‘customs partnership’ in which the UK would collect tariffs on the EU’s behalf on goods coming from other countries, and the other being a ‘highly streamlined customs arrangement’.

Tuesday

Charles Moore

Trump and Macron’s special relationship is no surprise

From our UK edition

People are expressing bemusement that Presidents Trump and Macron should get on well, since they seem such different people. Surely a clue lies in their shared title. They are the only important executive presidents in the western world, so they have that particular combination of real power and ceremonial pomp which is rightly denied to prime ministers. They love it. Besides, they are not so different, though M.Macron is Gallicly suave and Mr Trump is Yankee brash, and the former is small and thin, the latter neither. Both seem to be egomaniacs who believe in and embody führerprinzip (though luckily neither leads a country which gives it anything like full rein). They recognise it in one another. They can pump it up further by mutual admiration. ‘And the flags.

Steerpike

Watch: Donald Trump’s Macron power play

From our UK edition

Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron have a history of trying to upstage each other on the world stage. When the pair met in Paris last year, they subjected each other to a half-a-minute long handshake, with both determined not to be the first to let go of each other's hand. At the Nato summit, Macron famously swerved as he was walking towards Trump in an apparent snub. But with Trump now on home turf thanks to Macron visiting the President in the Oval Office just now, Trump appears to have finally got his revenge. First, Trump 'helped' his French counterpart – by apparently brushing some dandruff off Macron's shoulder. Trump brushes dandruff off Macron, calls him "perfect." 😳 pic.twitter.

Saturday

Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron is Making France Great Again

From our UK edition

Since Emmanuel Macron became president last year, he has unashamedly courted the world’s presidents, prime ministers, sheiks and chancellors. Much like Trump, his message has been clear: France is not only back, but it is great again. Trump and Macron will have the chance to discuss their strategies later this month when the American president hosts his 40-year-old French counterpart on the first official state visit by a foreign leader since his election. They first bonded in July when Trump was invited to Paris to revel in the pomp and ceremony of Bastille Day, against the grand historical backdrop of the Palace of Versailles, with all of its symbolism of French victory.

Thursday

Gavin Mortimer

Macron’s battles

From our UK edition

The honeymoon is over for Emmanuel Macron. His first 11 months in office have been something of a breeze — defined by economic growth, international approval and museum openings in the Middle East. But France’s youthful President is gearing up for months of domestic hostility. ‘The war of attrition’ was the headline in Tuesday’s Le Parisien. Alongside this stark declaration was a photograph of one of the President’s enemies, a prominent figure in CGT, the hard-left trade union. Burly, bearded and belligerent, Laurent Brun, head of the union’s railway section, vowed intransigence in the three-month rolling railway strike that started this week. Macron is as determined as the strikers and appears confident that victory will be his.

Friday

Gavin Mortimer

Macron’s naive plan to revive national service

From our UK edition

Emmanuel Macron's vow to press ahead with plans to bring back national service for France's youth has taken many by surprise. The French president's insistence that the scheme would be mandatory is also something of a shock, contradicting remarks made last week by Florence Parly, the minister of the armed forces, who appeared to suggest the service would be voluntary. Not so, according to a government spokesman, who said 'it will be universal...and it will be obligatory'. So how has this announcement been greeted? In Britain, such news would inevitably be met with howls of outrage from certain quarters. In France, however, Macron's plans have, for the most part, been greeted warmly.

Thursday

John Keiger

France and Brexit: lessons from history

From our UK edition

Almost 50 years before Brexit, there was a ‘Frexit’: France shocked her allies in March 1966 by giving notice of her withdrawal from an international community of largely European states (plus the USA and Canada), of which she had been a member for 17 years, on the grounds that she wished to regain her national sovereignty. French withdrawal from the integrated military command of NATO was complete within two years. Though France remained a member of the Atlantic Council and subsequently negotiated a continued role in certain NATO institutions, she left the all important collective military command which France’s president General de Gaulle claimed bridled her independence and her ability to play a world role.

James Forsyth

Macron charms, but won’t give ground on the City

From our UK edition

Emmanuel Macron is revelling in his new status as the preeminent politician in Europe. In his joint press conference with Theresa May, he turned in a charming performance highlighting the ties between Britain and France and urging the two countries to ‘make a new tapestry together’. However, there was a sting in the tail. When Macron was asked about financial services and the single market, he emphasised that Britain’s choice was between Norway—full involvement in the single market but paying into the budget, accepting ECJ jurisdiction and free movement—and Canada, a much more limited free trade deal. Interestingly, though, he said he didn’t want to exclude any sector from the EU’s free trade deal with the UK.

Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron’s charm offensive is paying off

From our UK edition

Summit? What summit? Coverage of today's Anglo-French tête-à-tête at Sandhurst can best be described as low-key on the French side of the Channel. And that's being kind. To say the French don't care may be a slight exaggeration, so let's settle for Gallic indifference. None of the newspapers cover the summit on their front pages and it was the seventh item on France's equivalent of Radio 4's Today programme this morning, sandwiched between a report on the Woody Allen allegations and the latest news from the Australian tennis Open. No analysis, little interest, just a brief mention that the president of the Republic will be in England for talks with the British Prime Minister. Whose name is Theresa May, just in case listeners didn't know, and many don't.