Élysée Palace

He did what he was told.

Just like Cameron and the clown in the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy.

So the chaos was the desired outcome and Libya still hasn't recovered from it to this very day.

Amazing, eh? It's 29 and a half minutes past the hour.

Il reviendra donc au Conseil européen de procéder à la nomination du nouveau président qui héritera de la direction de l'institution monétaire la plus importante du continent.

Ce départ anticipé ouvre des scénarios politiques importants, également pour l'Élysée.

Le président français Emmanuel Macron aura en effet la possibilité d'influencer le choix du successeur avant les prochaines élections présidentielles en France.

Un moment crucial où les sondages indiquent déjà une forte compétitivité pour Marine Le Pen.

Au lieu de cela là, avec ce coup de génie, une brèche dorée s'ouvre pour permettre à Emmanuel Macron de jouer encore un peu avec les pions européens avant que le vent ne tourne réellement.

C'est cela le sens du pouvoir : agir avant que la démocratie ne devienne un problème.

Alors que Lagarde parte vers Davos, vers les salons élégants et les sommets mondiaux, qu'elle laisse la place libre afin que l'Élysée puisse continuer à mettre son nez dans les affaires qui ne le concernent pas, mais qu'il prétend gérer avec la naturelle d'un maître de maison.

C'est une manœuvre tactique impeccable : vider la pièce avant que les invités indésirables ne puissent frapper à la porte.

I mean, this came quite close to happening.

They almost wanted to evacuate the Elysee Palace.

They almost landed a helicopter in the garden because it was besieged at some point.

absolutely insane few months and might even say insane years.

But again, we have to ask, are European countries under those situations swapping one potentially unreliable partner in Donald J. Trump's America? for another potentially unreliable partner in France when the domestic French political scene seems pretty tumultuous at this point in time.

So how does that work? I mean, is there a French deep state that we can rely on to get its act together? Or do we look at the Elysee Palace and wonder who is going to be in there making those kinds of

decisions? John, you're asking an Englishman Whether you can trust a Frenchman.

Tell me in plain English, Pat.

As far as I'm concerned, it was a matter of promoting the PQ's interest, a matter of promoting the SPP's interest to show, oh, look, I'm a statesman.

Did I mention I'm going to be meeting with the president of France? Which, by the way, I get to hear squat from the Élysée on that.

We'll see if it happens, actually.

But all that said, and as I told you yesterday, Aaron, my pet theory, you don't snub First Nations and you don't snub the prime minister of Canada.

But Patrick Chauvel, a well-known French photographer, did speak at some length to traffic police who carried out the original investigation.

They made their own investigation, of course, but then they had pressure from the Elysee, who told them to keep it low.

And they were not very happy about that, because they made their own inquiry, and that's their job.

So they don't like to be pushed when they're doing their job honestly.