Emmanuel Macron

Video shows French President Emmanuel Macron removing a bag of cocaine from a table as journalists entered the train cabin where he was meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Enlarged photographs and video footage show the white object Macron removed from the table and stuffed in his pocket was a tissue. This was also confirmed by the French government.

Viral social media posts are alleging that French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer were caught taking cocaine on their trip to Kyiv.

At the centre of the claims is a video showing the three leaders greeting one another on a train from Poland to Ukraine, ahead of a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reaffirm their support for his country.

It’s a tissue of lies.

A bizarre conspiracy that European leaders snorted cocaine en route to critical Ukraine talks has been roundly ridiculed by the French president’s office, after it was promoted by Russian trolls as well as American conspiracists such as Alex Jones.

“This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation,” the Elysee Palace posted on X.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening that Europe should be prepared to defend itself and Ukraine without the help of the United States, a demand long made by President Donald Trump.

President Macron said France and the rest of Europe cannot “remain spectators” to the war in Ukraine and must seek drastic rearmament to be able to protect the continent without America. The French leader said that he “wants to believe that the United States will stay by our side” but added, “we have to be ready if that is not the case”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said a truce between Ukraine and Russia could be agreed in the coming weeks.

He was speaking to Fox News in Washington following talks with Donald Trump at the White House on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion.

The US president, who suggested the war could end "within weeks", insisted Europe should shoulder the cost and burden of any peacekeeping...

France’s President Emmanuel Macron staged an impressive return to the world stage using the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral as an opportunity to broker talks between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President-elect Donald Trump against a backdrop that eclipsed other European leaders.

The ceremony came at the end of a challenging week for the French president, after the collapse of the government, which left the country rudderless.

Two days before the ceremony Macron was vowing to see out his remaining 30-month term as president despite calls for his resignation.

French President Emmanuel Macron named former Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier as the country’s new prime minister Thursday, ending 50 weeks of caretaker government and intense political wrangling after snap elections in July failed to deliver a majority for any party.

Barnier, a conservative, will now need to survive a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly, which is currently divided between Macron’s centrist grouping, the left-wing New Popular Front, and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.

In a surprise triumph over the populist National Rally, France’s left-wing political alliance came first in Sunday’s final round of parliamentary elections. The New Popular Front coalition of leftists won 182 seats, President Emmanuel Macron’s party won 168 seats, and the National Rally and its allies won 143 seats.

French President Emmanuel Macron refused the resignation of the country’s prime minister, asking him on Monday to remain temporarily as the head of the government after chaotic election results left the government in limbo.

French voters split the legislature on the left, center and far right, leaving no faction even close to the majority needed to form a government. The results from Sunday’s vote raised the risk of paralysis for the European Union’s second-largest economy.

A left-wing alliance has won the most seats in the French parliament after tactical voting in Sunday’s second round election thwarted Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, but France will be left in political limbo after no party came close to winning an absolute majority.