FRANCE'S most pro-European presidential candidate took his campaign to London this week to a rapturous welcome. Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former Socialist economy minister, was there to court the French vote abroad, and is exactly the sort of upbeat, international-minded tech enthusiast that London's latte-drinking French voters adore. Campaigning as an independent for votes on the left and the right, Mr Macron has pulled off the astonishing feat of hauling himself up from rank outsider to joint second place in the polls. But the closer he gets to a shot at the French presidency, the tougher his campaign is turning out to be.
A few days before Mr Macron turned up in London, he had been in more hostile territory: the Mediterranean naval port of Toulon, traditionally held by the right. The entrance to his rally was blocked by scores of enraged National Front (FN) supporters and pieds-noirs (ethnic French who resided in Algeria during colonial rule), chanting "Macron traitor!" On a trip to Algeria that week, he had called France's colonisation of the north African country a "crime against humanity".
The rally...
The Economist: Europe