Macron’s reforming zeal will be a test of France’s appetite for change

To the left he's a union-bashing president for the rich, but the 40-year-old's agenda also confuses rightwingers - which could work in his favour

'The left and the right don't know how to respond to President Macron's reform agenda," said a former senior trade union official. "What he's doing doesn't fit with the way we think about politics. It's not like the third-way politics championed by Tony Blair.

"It is based on empowerment of the individual - which threatens the left - and on the deployment of the state to invest and drive through reforms - which upsets the right. Neither has found a language or an alternative agenda with which to confront him."