Macron warned ‘France beheads its kings’ in new Hollande book

EMMANUEL MACRON has been warned that France has a tendency to cut off the heads of its kings, in a new book criticising his monarchic view of the presidency written by his predecessor François Hollande.

In extracts from Lessons of Power, out in France today, France’s former Socialist president seeks to rebuild his five years in office, insisting that his young successor, Mr Macron, is reaping the benefits of his efforts. He also admits he made mistakes in his term, which saw him become the least popular French president in history and choose not to run for re-election.

Mr Macron in 2015 had claimed that France was eternally nostalgic for the monarchy, and that “the king’s disappearance had left a vacuum at the head of state”.

“I saw no malice. I put it down to his taste for debating,” Mr Hollande writes, according to one extract published by Le Figaro. “Yet in retrospect, this dissertation in fact highlights his way of exercising power since being elected.”

He goes on to warn: “Those who say that people are looking for a king should never forget that they’re in a country that cuts his head off!”

The book’s release comes just a day before Mr Macron – who critics claim is out of touch with the people and favours the rich – will try and reconnect with pensioners, workers and rural communities by giving an unprecedented interview from a small village on a popular lunchtime news slot.

He faced accusations yesterday of undermining French secularism after he told French Catholic leaders that “relations between Church and State have been damaged” and must be “repaired”.