A new European leader has arrived on the world stage. At first people were not sure, but now it is clear that President Macron is a strong reformist leader who is not only changing France, with remarkably little domestic resistance from a country averse to change, but also impacting Europe and Brexit. Merkel, the EU mega-politician is struggling to form a government and even if she succeeds it will be one limited by widely different interpretations of where the EU in general and Germany in particular, should be headed.
Macron, on the other hand controls the Elysee Palace, and his new party has majorities in both houses of the French parliament. Already he has stepped into the power vacuum left by Germany’s temporary political paralysis and demonstrated De Gaulle style vision of a world in which France is far more centre stage than for at least two decades. More important, he appears to want to develop special ties with the UK regardless of Brexit going one way or the other or not at all. A new Special Relationship?
This could be very interesting. Watch this space.