The Queen is one Brit Macron can warm to

He may not have much respect for the ‘Clown’, but when it comes to the Queen Emmanuel Macron is as smitten as his compatriots.

With political relations between France and Britain at their coldest for decades, and Macron reportedly regarding Prime Minister Boris Johnson as more suitable for the circus, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee has provided the French president with an opportunity to warm up his rhetoric.

In a video address to Her Majesty published on Thursday, Macron praised the constancy of the Queen’s Francophilia throughout her 70 years on the throne. ‘Times have changed, Europe has evolved, our continent is again experiencing war,’ said Macron. ‘Through these transformations, your devotion to our alliance and to our friendship has remained, and has helped build the trust that brought freedom and prosperity to our continent.’

There were clues in the two-minute homage that perhaps the president wants his second term in office to bring better relations between Britain and France. ‘You are the golden thread that binds our two countries,’ he told the Queen. ‘The proof of the unwavering friendship between our nations.’

There were historical references: a mention of Charles de Gaulle, and the courage and determination of the wartime generation, the Queen’s generation, who ‘fought for the freedom we now enjoy’.

Macron ended his address in French, a language the Queen speaks, declaring that the Jubilee is an occasion to ‘celebrate the sincere and deep friendship that unites our two countries, and your devotion to it. Your Majesty, it is my privilege to extend to you, on behalf of the French people, my heartfelt congratulations’.

There was an accompanying gift, a seven-year-old grey gelding of the ceremonial French Republican Guard which was delivered to Windsor Castle on Wednesday. The present will be appreciated by the Queen. According to one French news broadcaster on Wednesday evening, over the decades she has made several private visits to France in her capacity as a racing aficionado, either attending races or casting an eye over horses that might have enhanced her stable.

The coverage of the Jubilee has been extensive in France, in the print and broadcast media, and Thursday’s celebrations were screened live on France2, one of the main free-to-view channels. The British Ambassador, Menna Rawlings, appeared on television to give her thoughts on why the French have so much warmth for the Monarch.

For some, it’s because they know the Queen’s affection for France is deep-seated; her visit in 1948 aged 22, with her new husband in tow, was her first time she had been outside the United Kingdom. Between 1957 and 2014 she made five State visits, each one generating huge crowds of well-wishers.

For others the Queen’s immutability is what they admire. When she came to the throne the president was Vincent Auriol, the first of the Fourth Republic. Macron is the eighth of the Fifth Republic, and the youngest she has known. In fact, when the Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee Macron was a foetus. Probably just as well the president didn’t mention that in his address.