Gavin Mortimer

Days before Christmas, the BBC published an article on its website headlined ‘Elon Musk’s curious fixation with Britain’. The broadcaster was anxious to discuss why Donald Trump’s right-hand man was taking such an interest in British affairs from across the pond. It turns out that Musk – who will be Trump’s efficiency tsar when he becomes president this month – is also keen to cast a critical eye over Germany’s domestic travails. Last weekend, he endorsed the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in an op-ed published in Welt, a conservative daily. Ahead of February’s general election, Musk described the right-wing AfD as the ‘last spark of hope’ for Germany.

Last Friday, America announced sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Georgian tycoon who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was imposing the punishment because Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream party was ‘undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation’. Georgian Dream triumphed in October’s parliamentary elections and on Sunday a new president, allied to the party, was sworn in as street protests take place in Tbilisi. Might the ‘lawfare’ that eliminated Georgescu from Romania’s presidential election also be deployed against Marine Le Pen this spring?

Emmanuel Macron has appointed the veteran centrist Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister of the year. First elected as an MP in 1986, Bayrou served as the Minister for Education in the 1990s under both the Socialist government of president Francois Mitterrand and the centre-right Jacques Chirac. In 2007 he launched a Centrist party, Mouvement démocrate (MoDem), which rallied to Macron’s support in the 2017 presidential election, even though early on in the campaign Bayrou described Macron as the candidate of the ‘forces of wealth’. Bayrou already has the left against him and Le Pen is prowling in the background The 73-year-old Bayrou was announced at lunchtime on Friday after a ‘tense’ meeting earlier in the morning with Macron at the Elysee.

Emmanuel Macron will this afternoon host the leaders of France’s political parties as he searches for his fourth prime minister of the year. The last one, Michel Barnier, fell last week after just three months in office. Not everyone, however, has received an invitation to the Elysée Palace. Marine Le Pen is persona non grata after her National Rally party joined the left-wing coalition in last Wednesday’s vote of no confidence in Barnier’s government. Macron hasn’t forgiven Le Pen, although he is more conciliatory towards the left-wing parties that conspired to bring down his government. The Communists, the Greens and the Socialists will all enjoy the president’s hospitality this afternoon.

Emmanuel Macron addressed the French people on Thursday night and once again ruled out the possibility he will resign before his mandate expires in 2027. As for appointing a new Prime Minister – his fourth this year – Macron said he would nominate Michel Barnier’s successor in ‘the coming days’. The big decisions concerning France are no longer made in Paris, but in Brussels Also on television on Thursday evening were the ‘extremists’ who Macron blames for bringing down Barnier’s government. Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melenchon gave lengthy interviews in which they justified their actions and, in the case of the latter, called on Macron to resign. Would it make much difference to France if Macron granted Melenchon his wish?

Emmanuel Macron will address the French people this evening, 24 hours after parliament passed a vote of no confidence in the president’s government. Millions of French will likely tune in and the majority – 63 per cent, according to one poll – would love it to be a resignation speech. No chance, according to the man himself. Earlier this week Macron said he would remain in the Elysee Palace ‘until the very last second of my term to serve the country.’ The fact is that France is in unchartered waters and no one knows what will happen in the coming weeks and months Thursday’s newspapers in France pore over the vote of no confidence and its ramifications, although as Le Figaro admits the country is ‘in the great unknown’.

France was plunged into another political crisis on Wednesday evening when the government of Michel Barnier lost a vote of no confidence. 332 MPs voted for the motion and 288 against, an inevitable result once Marine Le Pen’s National Rally let it be known that they would support the left-wing New Front Popular in their censure. It is only the second time in the 66-year history of the Fifth Republic that a government has lost of vote of no confidence; that previous occasion was in 1962 when Georges Pompidou’s premiership was terminated in similar fashion. It is not the opposition who have plunged France into chaos Throughout a tense afternoon the leaders of the political parties had addressed parliament outlining their reasons for voting for or against.

Emmanuel Macron arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday for trade talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Having signed a strategic partnership deal in Riyadh, the pair pledged to work for peace in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon. An Élysée spokesman said Macron wants ‘presidential elections to be held in Lebanon, with the aim of bringing the Lebanese together and carrying out the reforms necessary for the country's stability and security.’ No one wants to be seen trying to save Emmanuel Macron The irony won’t have been lost on the French.

There is a deadline today in France. It was set by Marine Le Pen last week for Michel Barnier. Show me you’re serious about respecting me and my party, she told the prime minister, or I will bring down your government. The ultimatum, ostensibly at least, concerns Barnier’s budget for 2025, and the ‘red lines’ that Le Pen demands must not be crossed if she’s to desist from supporting the left’s vote of no confidence. The sanctimonious hypocrisy of the French elite never ceases to amaze There have already been concessions of Barnier’s part, notably his withdrawal last week of a tax on electricity and a promise to reduce state medical aid.

When the history of the twentieth century is written, one of the questions that will puzzle historians is the sanctification of Angela Merkel, whose memoir is published today. Merkel was Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2015, and chosen as the third most powerful person in the world by  Forbes in 2016. When she stepped down as Chancellor in 2021 after 16 years in power, she was described by the BBC as someone who ‘has given her country what it expects from a leader: a voice of calm in a turbulent and shifting world’. In its tribute to Merkel, the Washington Post described her as ‘one of the savviest and most powerful leaders in the world’.