He promised to break the mould, but with his hubristic disdain for left and right – and for voters – the president has entrenched instability In his 2016 manifesto Revolution, the then-presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron, accused France’s “fossilised political apparatus” of dangerously paving the way for Marine Le Pen’s rise to power. “The political class and the media are a band of sleepwalkers who refuse to see what is coming their way,” he wrote, “so we see the same faces and we hear the same speeches.” He pledged to throw away the old playbook and gather behind him “progressive reformers who believe that the destiny of France is to embrace modernity.” The fresh face of pro-EU liberalism swept to power the following year on a promise of radical change to bring France into the 21st century. Jules Darmanin is a French journalist Continue reading...