51�Թ�

His beginnings were in the Chistian Democrat tradition of post-war politics, which in general supported but kept a distance from the larger Gaullist component of the French right, led from the late 1970s by Jacques Chirac.

He was there to collect funds for the approaching French presidential election on behalf of the centre-right Gaullist candidate Jacques Chirac, who was mayor of Paris at the time.

And in Paris, he inherited the mantle of the legendary Jacques Foccart – the Gaullist who oversaw the post-colonial Françafrique system, with its arrangements of influence and protection, markets, materials, muscle… and money.

Soon after arriving in Paris, he praised France, whose president, Emmanuel Macron, has often made the Gaullist point that Europe “must never be a vassal of the United States.”

“He is a socialist trade unionist who once worked for a Gaullist prime minister who describes himself as a closet Christian Democrat. He is a practicing Catholic who takes moral stances and claims not to be ambitious; yet he is a crafty political tactician who enjoys power and has held the Commission in an iron grip. He is a patriotic Frenchman with a vision of a unified Europe.”