In the course of his three-and-a-half year presidency, Emmanuel Macron must have the record for the most number of international states antagonised in the shortest time. From eastern Europe to the United States via Brexit he has the knack of putting states’ backs up by a mixture of outdated Gaullian pomposity, lesson-giving and base tactlessness. The latest and most dangerous variant is with Turkey, which is already spilling over to the wider 1.5 billion Muslim world.
Macron’s differences with president Erdogan are not new. They have crossed swords over Libya (where Macron supports the renegade general Haftar and Erdogan the UN-backed faction), Nagorno-Karabakh (Macron for Armenia, Erdogan for Azerbaijan), the Aegean Sea and now over the Islamist beheading on 16 October of the French school-teacher who showed his pupils the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
France has recalled her ambassador to Turkey ‘for consultations’ after Erdogan stated that ‘Macron needs mental treatment’ for his campaign to protect France’s secular values against radical Islamism.
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