Macron’s ‘Waterloo’? French President Comes Under Attack For Lockdown U-turn

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron’s order for a third COVID-19 lockdown, having insisted for weeks on keeping the country open against the advice of scientists, has exposed him to criticism from rivals with an eye on next year’s election.

The lockdown was needed to dampen a deadly third wave of infections that risked spiralling out of control while France ramped up its vaccination campaign, Macron told the nation in a televised address on Wednesday evening.

In locking the country down, the former investment banker abandoned a two-month gamble that he could steer France through this surge without the tough stay-at-home orders and school closures imposed in some other European nations this year.

It was Macron’s “Waterloo”, said far-right leader Marine Le Pen, an expression the French use to mean a definitive defeat.

“Unfortunately it is the French people who suffer the consequences of these delays, of his pride, and of his