French President Emmanuel Macron stood at the Arc de Triomphe last month and rebuked President Donald Trump's "America First" policy at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
It was a move that, by all accounts, infuriated Trump.
Trump went home from Paris being roundly mocked for the wide perception that he had let rainfall keep him from honoring fallen soldiers, and he fumed at Macron on Twitter.
Read more: Trump mocks France's World War II record as relations with Macron deteriorate into confrontation
But three weeks later protesters stormed the monument in central Paris in a massive, violent riot that saw it defaced with slogans calling for Macron's resignation and leaving the statue of Marianne, the symbol of France's revolution, with its face smashed in."Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism," Macron said on November 11. "Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying our interests first, who cares about the others, we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential: its moral values."
His remarks were widely seen as a slap in the face to Trump. But they fell on deaf ears, even among his countrymen.
France's lower and middle classes in the intervening weeks launched a massive mobilization that saw 36,000 marching in colors in the street.
↧
Trump gets last laugh on Euro pee ons, macron and paris is burning and EU spiraling down the toilet.
↧