The French president’s advisers say he has managed to pass the most challenging parts of his economic manifesto in the first year and a half of his second mandate, despite the lack of an absolute majority, and that future reforms, on education and euthanasia for instance, would be more consensual.

But Macron’s decision to use executive powers last year to pass a contested increase in the pension age to 64 triggered weeks of protests

No retirement, please die.

I long for the day France is just a distant memory and a cautionary tale on what not to become as a nation.