Strikes at home and war in Ukraine test the French president

Emmanuel Macron swept to power in 2017 on the back of a twin promise: to shake up France, and embolden Europe to act as a more muscular power. The French president’s first term had its ups and downs, but France today is broadly a more vigorous place, more enterprising, job-creating and welcoming to investors. The European Union, too, has moved in Mr Macron’s direction. Russia’s savage war on Ukraine has shown that a fractious rules-based club of 27 members can hold together, think geopolitically and export weaponry into a war zone.