France’s Macron weakened by crisis over teen killed police

SYLVIE CORBET

Even in normal times Emmanuel Macron needed allies’ help governing France.

To get some things done he worked with the traditional right. The center-left helped the French president accomplish others. The challenge was bigger than any a French leader had faced in more than two decades: He had to convince politicians across the country’s national assembly to support even a minor domestic project.

Now, governing his already-polarized country has gotten close to impossible for Macron because a suburban police officer stopped a yellow Class A Mercedes and fired one fatal shot into the 17-year-old driver’s chest, setting off six days of tumult across the country.

Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and its close allies had merely 251 seats out of 577 after Macron won his second five-year term last year with 58% of the votes in a runoff with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Macron dreamed big despite the