Liberty, equality, seniority

CANADA boasts 44-year-old Justin Trudeau; Italy has Matteo Renzi; even America’s Barack Obama became president in his 40s, promising change. When a dynamic 38-year-old launches a new political movement in France, however, he is dismissed as an upstart. This, at least, is the reaction of many party barons to the launch last week by Emmanuel Macron, the economy minister, of “En Marche!” (On the Move!), a cross-party movement designed to “unblock” France. They are right to judge him an untested outsider—and will try to keep him one. But Mr Macron has captured the broader French imagination, and his ideas deserve a hearing.In many respects, Mr Macron’s effort to reboot France by creating a consensus for change that reaches from the centre-left to centre-right looks doomed. He has never been elected, and is not a member of President François Hollande’s Socialist Party. He thus has no party base, no political machine and no grassroots network. Much of the French left considers his past as an investment banker unforgivable. He is (probably) too loyal to run against Mr Hollande, if the unpopular president defies reason and seeks re-election next year. Were Mr Hollande instead to retire quietly, Mr Macron would face a crowd of other presidential hopefuls, including a fellow moderniser, the prime minister, Manuel Valls.