Lee Hockstader: Macron’s hubris-fuelled crash may sink the European dream

French president Emmanuel Macron is seen as arrogant by a big chunk of the electorate. Photo: AP

Lee Hockstader
© Washington Post

In most Western countries, municipal authorities or the courts would have settled a stand-off such as the one that began last year, when Paris police ordered the temporary removal of hundreds of antiquarian bookstalls that have bracketed the Seine for centuries.

It was a security measure ahead of the Summer Olympics, when 300,000 spectators will throng the river’s banks for the opening ceremonies on July 26.