Emmanuel Macron and the restoration of French monarchy

Have the French belatedly realised the error of their regicide and decided to restore the monarchy?  If so, will the regime of Emmanuel Macron, whose seizure of power must certainly be inspiring politicians around the globe with its brutal efficacy, end the same way?  Macron’s glittering and symbolic appearance yesterday at the Palace of Versailles to address a joint session of the National Assembly – over which he currently exercises complete domination – and the Senate, will give historians, semioticians and journalists plenty to mull (although Macron has said that his thoughts are too complex to be explained to the media). But Macron played a blinder. Many French deeply regret not having a king. Now, at least for the next five years, they seem to have one.

In a state of the republic speech lasting an hour and a half, Macron bewitched, seduced and confused. He sketched in the broadest possible terms the simultaneous objectives of a profound reform of French political institutions, an unblocking of the sclerotic French economy, a restoration of the European Union (with France at its centre), and above all, the rehabilitation of the glory of France, with himself at the centre.