Tempting as it has been for French commentators to describe Emmanuel Macron as an Icarus, the young president has so far managed to let the sun lick his wings without crashing to earth.
The journey hasn’t been easy; he famously ran for the job without a long-established party behind him, and though he managed to shine during the presidential campaign, his honeymoon was shortlived.
A hundred days after being elected, Macron was incredibly unpopular. Only 36 per cent of the population was satisfied with what he had been doing, the lowest figure in recent memory.
While his reforms on ‘confidence in public life’ were broadly applauded − there is more transparency than ever in the National Assembly, and harsher rules on conflict of interests for politicians − one cannot bring a country together by regulating the Paris bubble alone.
