Britain and its government has a well deserved reputation for kow-towing to foreign investors. But even they (one hopes) would draw a line at allowing a Middle East state to set up shop in the Royal Hospital Chelsea. In France, however, Emmanuel Macron’s government is studying a request from Saudi Arabia to erect its Olympic village in the Invalides during the Paris Olympics this summer.
The site is sacred for the French military. As well as housing the country’s national army museum, it is the site of the Institution Nationale des Invalides, the equivalent of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, and is also home to a necropolis containing the tomb of Napoleon.
Macron is not a president averse to doing business with whoever opens their cheque book
When he was asked about the likelihood of the Saudis installing themselves in the Invalides for the duration of the Olympics, Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu replied that a decision had not yet been taken.
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