Macron in Nairobi as Socialist leadership fractures

The day's headline event was diplomatic: Emmanuel Macron flew to Nairobi to open a two-day Africa summit co-hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto, the first such gathering France has held in an English-speaking African country and a deliberate pivot to East and Southern Africa after a wave of coups across the Sahel pushed French troops out of Francophone West Africa and France handed back its last major Senegalese base in July. Investment deals on clean energy, artificial intelligence and education are at the centre of the agenda; Ruto plans to use the platform to advance his campaign for a fairer global financial architecture for heavily indebted African states, which Paris has pledged to support. Macron will also stop in Egypt and Ethiopia. The pivot has not insulated French firms from competition: a $1.5 billion Kenyan highway extension a Vinci-led consortium had been favourite for went to Chinese bidders last year after Nairobi flagged contractual risk.

Algeria, the other axis of French diplomacy, moved in parallel. France returned ambassador Stéphane Romatet to Algiers more than a year after his recall in protest at Paris's recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, and Deputy Armed Forces Minister Alice Rufo joined commemorations of the 1945 Sétif massacre, in which French forces killed an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 Algerians, in a visit Macron's office described as advancing "truth" between the two states.

Domestically the day was dominated by the disintegration of the Parti Socialiste's national leadership. Boris Vallaud, who leads the Socialist deputies in the Assemblée nationale, and his entire faction — 24 people in total, including 21 of the party's national secretaries — resigned from the PS leadership, franceinfo reported, leaving First Secretary Olivier Faure isolated though still nominally in post. The walkout caps months of internal dispute over Faure's strategy of conditional support for the minority government and the party's positioning ahead of any 2027 contest.

Marine Le Pen used the same news cycle to push a Hormuz-driven cost-of-living attack. Speaking on ICI Nord, the Rassemblement National deputy called the government's fuel-aid package "des miettes" — crumbs — and demanded VAT on petrol be cut from 20% to 5.5% and a temporary windfall tax imposed on TotalEnergies' superprofits, arguing fuel should be treated as an essential good while pump prices stay elevated by the US-Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz disruption. The Élysée has previously said it has no plans to revisit the VAT rate.

France's external posture on the Gulf hardened in parallel: Paris has called Iran's new Persian Gulf Strait Authority — which from this week requires shipping to obtain Iranian clearance and pay tolls before transiting Hormuz — "unacceptable," a position that aligns with Washington's blockade enforcement even as Italy and other European capitals continue to resist providing naval escorts.