Then, of course, there is Macron’s long-standing enmity with Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, who has refused to toe the EU line on LGBT rights. More recently, Macron launched a stunning attack on Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Morawiecki’s sin was criticizing Macron for continuing to hold talks with Vladimir Putin after his troops invaded Ukraine. Poland was so furious that it summoned the French ambassador. Macron began his Morawiecki campaign in April, the month of the French presidential election, when polls had his rival, Marine Le Pen, breathing down his neck. Attacking Poland’s right-wing government, Macron certainly had one eye on the home front. In other words, she was playing to the gallery, which is exactly what she accused Truss of doing when she replied “the jury is out” when asked at a leadership meeting whether Macron is “friend or foe” of Britain. Truss was wrong to answer the way she did. not because it is necessarily wrong in its assessment, but because it has allowed Macron to seize the moral high ground. It has sparked another burst of hysteria from embittered Remoaners, who believe it is all Britain’s fault that Anglo-French relations are at their worst for decades. Blame lies on both sides, but at the heart of the animosity is Macron’s refusal to accept the result of the referendum. He continues to sulk (perhaps, with his British great-grandfather, he takes it more personally) and this attitude permeates his government. Ministers like Clément Beaune love nothing more than to malign the British. Macron’s anger has clouded his judgment and blinded him to the benefits of a closer relationship with a country that would prove a far more reliable ally than Germany. He has exploited France economically and militarily for the past 100 years, but while the French media often point this out, Macron has a strange devotion to his neighbor across the Rhine, an unrequited love. More than ever, Europe needs the EU and the UK to have a healthy relationship. Most member states also want this, but Macron cannot accept the idea of Britain going unpunished for its aggression to leave. So there is no point in Macron warning of “serious problems” ahead between Britain and France when he has gone out of his way to antagonize successive UK governments. Last year, he was widely reported to have described Boris Johnson as a “clown” and has been recorded as blaming the Brexit vote on “lies” and “false promises”. Is this the language of a man who wants to be Britain’s friend or one who seems to specialize in turning world leaders into enemies?
