It was Morten Morland who drew the first comparison between Emmanuel Macron and the story of the emperor’s new clothes. His cartoon is a deadly allegory, and not just for the vanity of Macron. Because the point of the story is not just that the emperor is a vain idiot, but that those who pretend otherwise are idiots, too.
The result of the election in France is really a no-brainer. Twenty-one million people voted, 21.9 per cent for Macron. The list backed by the recently thought extinct Marine Le Pen attracted 23.9 per cent. Greens, mainstream conservatives, various leftists and numerous crackpots shared the rest. The vote against Macron: 78.06 per cent.
The sycophancy and cowardice of much of the French media and Macron’s own courtiers is well known but the contortions to which they have put themselves trying to defend the presidency are truly exceptional. Various credulous British and American journalists are joining in with this deception.
It remains hard to argue that with nearly 80 per cent of his own voters against him, Macron will remain Europe’s saviour, especially when he is himself an enabler of the very populism he is supposed to vanquish.
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