France’s under-15s can carry on using social media after a parliamentary ban was struck down by the Republic’s constitutional council on Friday. The ruling is a humiliating blow for Emmanuel Macron, who had championed the legislation from the beginning. It had won the backing of both parliament and the Senate last month but the Council had other ideas. In rejecting the Bill, France’s highest constitutional authority judged that it ‘places a disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression and communication’.

Macron heard the news as he enjoyed the surf at his seaside retreat on the Riveria, a break that has already provoked the ire of many. Should the president be gallivanting on a jet-ski when so much of the country is ravaged by destructive wildfires? An Elysee spokesperson said that the president remains determined to push through the ban and he has ordered his prime minister to redraft a legally sound text ‘as a matter of urgency’.

Macron’s fin de règne is becoming an embarrassment for the president and for the Republic

Macron’s fin de règne is becoming........

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