“Precisely because the French election developed the way it did - with the ‘European leader’ on one side vs. the extreme nationalist right wing on the other - there was a fundamental misunderstanding of who Macron was and what he represented. Because it was such an extreme presidential election, we kind of forgot at the end of the day that it was also a national election”. In her interview with The Washington Post, Nathalie Tocci analyses the gap between expectations and reality in president Macron's early politcal actions.
Paris and Rome's dispute over the STX shipyards is just the tip of the iceberg and historical rivalries between the two countries are slowly re-emerging.
