As bureau chief for British magazine the Economist, Sophie Pedder got to know Emmanuel Macron earlier than most Macron-watchers. “When Macron came along with all this optimism, it sat very uneasily with that national character,” she says. “[The novelist] Michel Houellebecq said Macron was imposing a medical cure of optimism on the French. In his first year as president, Macron “has grown into the office”, Pedder says. He can be very ruthless when he wants to be.”In Europe and the world, Pedder continues, “One of Macron’s problems is who does he work with?

Source: The Irish Times June 05, 2018 05:03 UTC