Panicky Disarray?

PARIS  — It has the air of a last supper. The black-and-white photograph captures the angst and frustration of President Emmanuel Macron’s inner circle, presumably at the very moment he briefs them he’s about to bet big on a high-stakes parliamentary election.

Macron is seated at a table — with a small carriage clock before him — in an opulent chamber of the Élysee palace, while a palpable tension grips his closest lieutenants opposite. It’s perhaps an unusual image for the Élysée’s official photographer to post on Instagram, but no one doubts it fairly reflects the nerves wracking the president’s inner circle.

Humiliated by the far-right National Rally in the EU election, Macron delivered a bombshell announcement June 9 that he would try to hold back the advances of the right with a national election. Since then, Macron’s top team has been conspicuous for their doubts, grumbling and low spirits.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire — a pillar of Macron’s Renaissance liberal party — won the award for most apocalyptic diagnosis on a campaign stop in northern France after Le Figaro quoted him bemoaning that “the country is going to the dogs.”

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