In his last few months as president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron looks more than ever a man who lost control of events, lost touch with the nation he leads, and lost the confidence of international investors with it. This is not a comfortable, confident position for any leader to be in, but with a hung parliament hardly able to pass a budget and the very fabric of of the nation unravelling, this lame duck - who once promised so much with his unifying project of a radical centre - has been, and is, reacting in all the wrong ways to the malaise now enveloping his country.
Rather than through, say, a television interview or a speech delivered in person, President Macron, so inappropriately aloof, chose initially to react to the protests that have broken out across France over the weekend, sparking disorder, violence and hundreds of arrests in a rather terse statement on X: “Those who took part in the vandalism, attacked prefectures and stores, and engaged in looting, including in city hall buildings, will be brought to justice and will be punished.”
