Macron’s ‘grand débat’ for restoring order in France gets under way – but is it all just a smokescreen?

In a spartan hall in the provincial town of Chateau-Thierry, a tiny group of local citizens was locked in heated, chaotic discussion on how to save France.

As tempers flared, one woman turned to her neighbour and scolded him for badmouthing the local MP as a liar and a charlatan. “Can we refrain from using swear words and insults,” she exclaimed. “I’m entitled to my opinion,” he scowled. 

The order of the day was “purchasing power” but it soon became a free-for-all on everything from cronyism and conspiracy theories to immigration. A baby escaped its mother’s arms and started banging a plastic cup on the table. “He’s teething,” she said apologetically.

If this is how Emmanuel Macron envisaged…

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