Politics
Pas de problème
The French president is heading for foreign shores with the aim of reassuring his hosts that everything is OK at home.
Emmanuel Macron will become the first French president in decades to make a state visit to Denmark when he touches down in Copenhagen today. It certainly doesn’t happen very often – long-serving Danish queen Margrethe II has only entertained François Mitterrand since she assumed the throne almost half a century ago. But these are strange times for Macron. He has domestic problems aplenty and wants to put on a united front ahead of crunch Brexit negotiations in the coming months; he also knows that politicians in Copenhagen are equally concerned about the populist surge that is blighting much of Europe. His two-day visit precedes meetings in Finland and Luxembourg before he hosts his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, at the Élysée Palace. Time to turn on the Gallic charm, then.