If Peter Sellers were still around, he could play the President to perfection, as a politician who is all at once cunning, witty, naive and triumphant.
The country’s Prime Minister is a classic cakeist – berating the EU on the one hand, but not seeking to leave on the other.
Weakening at home and friendless abroad, it finds itself on the back foot – and exposed to its nations’ reliance on EU funds.
And if Germany’s Greens are in government after the federal election, they will be inclined to help him.
The president has lost his majority during the course of the Coronavirus pandemic. How will it affect his odds at the 2022 election?
A new book argues that the country is divided between a metropolitan elite, which rules for its own advantage – and the rest.
EU federalism will be stronger in Britain, as rules are simply imposed on you. And stronger in the rest of Europe – because you’re leaving us.
By seeing off Le Pen and electing the most ideologically pro-EU president since Giscard d’Estaing, France has changed the game.
Was your vote in the EU referendum a vote for yourself, your family, your neighbourhood, your country, Europe, or the world? For the short-term or the long?
Perhaps the reason why the Conservatives are marginalising them is that the former are shaping an electoral coalition big enough to include Leavers and Remainers.
It remains highly likely that Emmanuel Macron will beat Marine Le Pen. But France’s growing euroscepticism should not be ignored.
The established parties have lost their grip on this contest, but their hold on other parts of the country’s system remains strong.
Marine Le Pen is offering a socialist programme.
Will the UK get a deal? Much depends on whether other European governments or the EU Commission take charge on the other side of the table.
Any move to grab more powers next year is going to end badly for politicians in Brussels.