Brussels Edition: Being French

Photo Illustration: Tom Hall/Bloomberg

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France is doing a great job annoying pretty much everyone in Brussels these days — lending support to a Libyan warlord, fussing over the start of trade talks with the U.S. and boycotting a long Brexit extension. President Emmanuel Macron, whose election victory march was to the tune of the EU anthem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, finds himself isolated or often in the minority. Granted, he has extracted concessions, like shortening the Brexit delay or more reassurances on transatlantic talks. But it’s doubtful these successes resonate enough at home to matter in next month’s European elections, in which case political capital will have been spent for nothing and the victories will prove Pyrrhic.