The editorial in today’s Le Figaro heralds the dawn of a 21st century Entente Cordiale and the newspaper carries an interview with Rishi Sunak. Speaking ahead of today’s Anglo-French summit in Paris, Sunak says he wants to ‘open a new chapter with France’.
Le Figaro pins the blame for the deterioration in relations between the two countries since the last summit in 2018 on the British, specifically Boris Johnson and his ‘anti-French populism’. The French believe that is now a thing of the past with Sunak in No. 10. This conveniently overlooks the fact that if Johnson was the bête noire of the French, Emmanuel Macron hasn’t exactly been the most diplomatic leader.
Macron doesn’t respond well to criticism, and nor does he like it when things don’t go his way
When he was elected president in 2017 Macron boasted of turning France into a ‘Start Up Nation’. Square Up Nation might be more accurate given the president’s penchant for seeking confrontation, and not just with Britain.
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