Jonathan Fenby

The Macron miracle

France’s supercharged new president is shaping up to be a new de Gaulle

issue 17 June 2017

 Paris

‘I don’t care what her name is — why can’t you do something useful like invent a wheel?’

While Theresa May flounders in a mess of her own making, Emmanuel Macron is striding out on to the sunlit uplands of French politics. Six decades after Charles de Gaulle set up the Fifth Republic, his seventh successor is charging ahead with his attempt to restore a quasi-monarchical authority to the occupant of the Elysée Palace.

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