Emmanuel Macron’s great Brexit gamble

There is an intriguing pattern in our relationship with European integration. A Frenchman vetoed our attempt to join. A Frenchman threatens to veto our attempt to leave – or at least to leave with an agreement. General de Gaulle said we were too remote from Europe to join. Emmanuel Macron says we are too close to Europe to leave. I think de Gaulle got it right. I hope Macron doesn’t turn out to be right too, so that we end up stuck half in and half out, neither ‘at the heart of Europe’ nor ‘global Britain’.

How individuals and nations react to the project of European federalism is determined not just by their calculation of what’s in it for them (though this is clearly paramount for some) but also by their notions of history. Does the European Union keep the peace in Europe? Without it would we slide back into the 1930s? Can European democracy be trusted? Does the EU make declining European nations more important?

In no European country are these historical reflections more crucial than in France, which is precisely why the French, from de Gaulle to Macron, have been so important in making and breaking our relations with Europe.