Among the first to draw the lessons of the Kabul debacle is Mohamed Bin Zayed, the lean, soft-spoken crown prince of Abu Dhabi, de facto ruler of the UAE — the only Arab country that had a military contingent in Afghanistan for 20 years. MBZ, as he is known, is in London today for quiet […]
Yesterday, Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, an obscure Spanish diplomat, who rejoices in the title of UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, was abruptly introduced to the ephemeral glory of trending on French Twitter. A former Socialist MP, Mr Moratinos had just issued an official statement, in which he expressed “deep concern” about the “growing tensions […]
With Emmanuel Macron’s party performing dismally in Sunday’s French municipal elections, it looks as if the rest of the world has finally cottoned on to a fact we have known here since the gilets jaunes revolt: our charismatic young president, lionised by the international press, is seriously unpopular at home. So much that his re-election […]
With the support of the Atlas Network, CapX is publishing a new series of essays on the theme of Illiberalism in Europe, looking at the different threats to liberal economies and societies across the continent, from populism to protectionism and corruption. When Emmanuel Macron left for a short holiday in August, battered by eight months […]
This week CapX is republishing some of our favourite articles of the year. This piece first appeared on December 13. When he was 15, in his Jesuit Lycée in provincial Amiens, Emmanuel Macron wanted nothing more than to become an actor. He joined the school’s drama club, created by the woman he would eventually marry, Brigitte […]
When he was 15, in his Jesuit Lycée in provincial Amiens, Emmanuel Macron wanted nothing more than to become an actor. He joined the school’s drama club, created by the woman he would eventually marry, Brigitte Auzière, a French Literature teacher. (Trawling through YouTube, you can find snippets of his performances.) As he delivered his somewhat stilted pre-taped […]
When Emmanuel Macron, speaking to both Houses gathered in Congress at Versailles recently, dropped the C-bomb mid-way through his 90-minute address, it went down about as well as you’d expect in a country that derives its attitudes to finance from both Roman Catholicism and Marxism. Macron said he wanted to foster “un capitalisme populaire” (a […]
The sight of Emmanuel Macron, air-fist-pumping next to a bemused King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium in the presidential box of the St Petersburg Stadium on Tuesday, when Samuel Umtiti scored a goal during the France-Belgium semi-final, played less well in France than le Président might have expected. When your poll numbers have taken a nosedive, with […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. This was first published on January 27. French politics hasn’t ever been this fun – or this hard to keep up with. Barely a week ago, as we waited for the first round of the Socialist Party primary last week, everyone […]
As he finally leaves Paris for a few days’ holiday in an undisclosed location, an embattled Emmanuel Macron must be rueing the day he so comprehensively creamed Marine Le Pen in the television debate that sealed his election victory last spring. Macron won two-thirds of the vote in the second round in good part because […]
On Monday morning, Emmanuel Macron had won the greatest accumulator bet in the history of modern French politics. Elected 8th president of the Fifth Republic with two thirds of the vote last month, he’d gone on to win a clear majority of 308 MPs (out of 577) for En Marche!, the party he’d founded a […]
Only last Wednesday, answering a television host in a possibly unwise show late-campaign silliness and ingratiation, the five main French presidential candidates posed with their favourite four-legged friends. Marine Le Pen had her own cats. Emmanuel Macron admiringly showed off a pig he’d met by chance during a farm visit. But, then, on Thursday, France’s […]
In how many different ways can François Fillon, the beleaguered Republican candidate to the French Presidency, shoot himself in the foot? Yesterday, he was placed under formal investigation over alleged “diversion of public funds and misappropriation of money” and a few of his hard-core supporters, who still believe he was targeted to prevent the traditional Right […]
Classmates of Emmanuel Macron at ENA, the elite government school that mints most of France’s power brokers — whether in politics, business, or the civil service — have become a bit cagey when it comes to discussing him. He was the archetypal young man in a hurry: Rothschild’s banker at 30 (full partner at 32), […]
You have to hand it to Emmanuel Macron. He’s the only one running an Obama campaign in a Clinton/Bush/Nixon field of French presidential candidates. He’s François Hollande’s former deputy Chief of Staff, Economy minister, top ENA graduate (think Oxbridge PPE, but more exclusive) and a former Rothschild’s investment banker. Even so, Macron, 39, is so […]
French politics hasn’t ever been this fun – or this hard to keep up with. Barely a week ago, as we waited for the first round of the Socialist Party primary last week, everyone was bemoaning the shambles of the Left. There were eight lacklustre candidates taking part in the contest, as well as two […]
