Who is Emmanuel Macron and where is he taking France?, with William Drozdiak, author of The Last President of Europe: Emmanuel Macron's Race to Revive France and Save the World

In conversation with Simon Kuper

In 2017, 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron became France’s youngest leader since Napoleon. Who is this man from small-town Amiens, who passed through the elite ENA school and briefly worked as a banker? What is his project for France – and which bits of it has he managed to realize amid the turmoil of gilets jaunes protesters, strikes and the pandemic? What is his worldview? How does he see the US, China and Putin? What is his approach to Islam and to Islamism? And why, when he’s admired by so many outside France, does he inspire such hatred in so many French people?

William Drozdiak is the perfect guide. For his book The Last President of Europe he conducted a series of long interviews with Macron and other insiders in the Elysées palace.

Drozdiak is a former foreign editor of the Washington Post and a veteran foreign correspondent. Before journalism, he played professional basketball in the United States and Europe for seven years. His acclaimed book “Fractured Continent: Europe’s Crises and the Fate of the West” was selected by the Financial Times as one of the best political books of 2017. He now lives in Washington D.C., working as senior advisor for Europe with McLarty Associates and as nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Simon Kuper is a columnist for The Financial Times.