The euro is the source of Macron’s troubles

A new interior minister. A new agriculture and culture minister. There wasn’t, despite some speculation, a new prime minister, but there will be lots of new fresh faces around the cabinet table. France’s dynamic young president Emmanuel Macron has finally re-launched his government after a wave of resignations in a bid to kick-start phase two of his term of office, restore some order to an increasingly chaotic administration, and, probably not co-incidentally, to rescue his tumbling poll ratings.

The trouble is, his real problem is not the team around him. Nor is it his style, or resistance to his reforms, although both might cause controversy. In fact, it is becoming painfully obvious that France’s real problem is the euro. Macron has been making all the right reforms, and has injected plenty of pro-business energy into the country. But a dysfunctional single currency is still relentlessly sucking demand out of the economy – and so long as that is true, the French economy is going to keep on failing.