A no-deal Brexit spells trouble for Emmanuel Macron

In 1919, a 31-year-old Tommy from Bristol, named George Robertson – fresh from fighting alongside French troops on the Somme – married Suzanne Leblond in Abbeville, northern France. In 2017, George Robertson’s great grandson, Emmanuel Macron, became French president. Macron embarked on a policy that, while acknowledging Franco-British friendship, sought to ensure that Britain did not prosper from Brexit. Yet Macron’s stance appears increasingly counter-intuitive. Of all the European leaders, Macron is noted for being the most intransigent in his public utterances on Britain’s Brexit negotiations. He has nailed his pro-European colours to the mast and insisted that, in opting for Brexit, the British people must bear the consequences even if, as he claims, they were lied to by their politicians. However, its Macron’s own people who are likely to be seriously impacted by a hard Brexit.

Yet what will happen to France’s surplus in the event of a no-deal Brexit has received little attention publicly from the French government or French media. Macron’s high-profile attempt to woo City financial firms to Paris has been a flop; those that have chosen to set up in Europe have largely avoided France.