The Big Picture
Vincent Boland: A vibrant civil society is a vital bulwark against the arrogance of power
French president Emmanuel Macron’s condescending style of leadership has turned all of France against him, but he’s far from the only leader these days to attempt to remake his country’s body politic in his own image
When Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France six years ago, he quickly attracted the nickname Jupiter due to his style of governing de haut en bas. The Roman deity of that name was the most powerful of them all, the god of thunder. With his outsized ego and prickly personality, France’s young and impulsive new leader probably loved the comparison.
The rumble of thunder can be heard again in France these days, but on ...
