The French buy-out that explains Macron’s strategy

It’s a platitude that France and Britain are rivals and have been for centuries. But, since the 1904 Entente Cordiale, the rivalry is more a question of competition than conflict. Always, in the darkest hour, each sided with the other, even if post-war they didn’t fully recognise the other’s contribution. Britain congratulated itself over the Dunkirk evacuation when in truth without French troops holding off the Germans, the ‘plucky’ armada would never have completed its mission; to this day the French believe that American troops were more numerous than British in the Normandy landings. 

With the passing of the French war-time generation the postwar moral debt to Britain and residual goodwill were expunged. Franco-British relations became purely transactional with a host of pragmatic and deep agreements on everything from defence and diplomacy to security. Then two things happened: Brexit and Macron.

Since 2017, the French President’s aim has been to demonstrate that Britain cannot possibly thrive post-Brexit.