Because at a time when certain categories of the population demonstrate up to twice a week so as not to have to work two more years… Who could seriously have imagined the two heads of state toasting champagne under the gilding of the sublime Versailles Hall of Mirrors? The answer: nobody.
Versailles is a good part of the problem, but the slalom between the mountains of junk that litter the streets of Paris might have looked bad too
But yes, the main obstacle was the Château Ile-de-France. This high place of classical architecture, residence of the kings of France for a century, to which Emmanuel Macron is very attached… And which he has already used on several occasions to treat his counterparts. As with Vladimir Putin in 2017, to signify to him at the time – to him and to the whole world – the return with great fanfare of France to the concert of Nations after the Hollande quinquennium.
Ditto elsewhere with the Invalides, the Champs-Élysées and the Eiffel Tower to impress Donald Trump this time; or the Fort de Brégançon, to mark the summer relaxation of certain meetings. These are all places of power that Emmanuel Macron uses each time to serve his international strategy.
But that doesn’t always work. In the same way that Emmanuel Macron’s “personal diplomacy” enabled him to forge a whole host of good relations without however winning the slightest showdown, this “heritage diplomacy” hardly produces any more results.
Certainly, he manages each time to press where it is good for his guests. But it never brings him anything or almost nothing. If not domestic controversies, then, like the one that has just led him to “uninvite” Charles III.
There is therefore perhaps one last heritage card that Emmanuel Macron should consider cutting down: that of the Élysée. That’s good, the Palace is made for that.