Emmanuel Macron faces the first real test of his presidency

“I AM NOT made to lead in calm weather,” Emmanuel Macron told a French novelist a year ago. “I’m made for storms…If you want to take a country somewhere, you have to advance at all costs. You can’t give in, you can’t fall into a routine. But at the same time, you have to be willing to listen. Listening to people means recognising their share of anger and suffering.”

The popular revolt that has gripped the country renders the French president’s words prescient, but also reflects advice to himself that went strangely unheeded. If anybody understood the value of listening, it was Mr Macron. He founded a party, En Marche, (“On the Move”), since then renamed La République en Marche (LREM), based on grassroots consultation. He and it swept into office 13 months later on the back of a political insurgency against the established party system. Today he stands accused of indifference to ordinary people, and the latest rebellion is directed at him.