On Sunday, Emmanuel Macron was urging his fellow Europeans to use a ‘bazooka’ against Donald Trump in response to his tariff threat. Within 24 hours the President of France was alone in the trenches with his bazooka as Keir Starmer, Giorgia Meloni and Friedrich Merz all opted for jaw jaw and not war war.

According to the book, Macron has formed a ‘masculinist circle made up of men he gets on with. It’s not homosexual, but guys who enjoy each other’s company and drink red wine together’

Macron’s macho response to Trump’s tariffs was in keeping with the portrait of the president of France detailed in a new book. Nero at the Élysée is a damning account of a young man who came to office in 2017 with so much hope but who will leave as the most hated president of the Fifth Republic. The book is written by two respected journalists, both of whom believed that Macron was the man to reinvigorate France in 2017. Nearly a decade later they are as disenchanted with the rest of the country with a president who, in their words,........

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