EMMANUEL MACRON TAKING MORE LOSSES

French President Emmanuel Macron has had a tough few years, and his troubles appear to be mounting following a video from a recent trip to Vietnam, in which his wife, Brigitte, looks to have slapped him in the face while wearing a red jacket.

Paris has been left in apparent panic since 'former African colonies' booted France following people-backed coups d'état in recent years. Mali initiated the move in 2022 by expelling French troops and cutting off military ties. Then, Burkina Faso and Niger followed in 2023. On 6 July 2024, the three countries formed the anti-imperialist Alliance of Sahel States. Non-AES countries, such as Chad have followed suit and Senegal has also begun withdrawing French troops.

Some of these actions prompted Macron to deliver a scathing speech on 6 January, calling African leaders 'ungrateful' for not acknowledging France's role in supposedly preventing Islamist militants from taking control in Africa's Sahel region and stating that these countries would not be functional today without French military intervention. Indeed, since Western occupations of the Sahel following the 2011 US-led NATO invasion of Libya, t*rrorism in the Sahel has led to more than half of the world's t*rrorism-related deaths. Just last month, think tank Vision of Humanity called it a 'notable increase from the 1 per cent it represented [17] years ago!’

Macron's 6 January speech met widespread backlash from the continent and the diaspora. One of the African leaders who denounced Macron's remarks included Burkina Faso's outspoken President Ibrahim Traoré. 'If there is an ingrate, it is him … France exists today thanks to our ancestors. He should pray to us,' Traoré told a roaring crowd in Ouagadougou.

It seems France is gradually being relegated to its rightful place in history as a thieving colonial and neo-colonial power starved of its exploits. As the cliche goes, you reap what you sow.