Before his election, Emmanuel Macron famously likened the role of French president to Jupiter, the lofty Roman god of Gods. 

France, he theorised, expects a touch of majesty from its head of state and never really got over losing the monarchy, pining for the King like a lost limb.

It also likes to think it can chop his head off at will.

The paradox, he said, meant that the French were a nation of “regicidal monarchists”.

To keep both Gallic hemispheres happy “at the same time” – his pet phrase – Macron embarked on participative democracy via door-knocking campaigns, hundreds of local associations and an array of political unknowns from civil society, many of whom became MPs.

Eighteen months later,…