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Trump blocks Macron’s ambassador. Over a tweet
Washington has refused to grant agrément to Aurélien Lechevallier, who was chosen by the President of the Republic for the French embassy. The retaliation is reportedly linked to a tweet by the French mission to the UN criticising the United States
Paris. Aurélien Lechevallier was due to arrive in Washington on 20 September to replace Laurent Bili as French Ambassador to the United States. However, the appointment of the current chief of staff to the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has been held up: the State Department has not yet granted the agrément, the authorisation by which Washington formally accepts a foreign ambassador. The reason? A row sparked by a tweet from the French mission to the UN.
On 25 July, after the United States had voted against the reappointment of Volker Türk as head of the UN Human Rights Office, the French mission accused Washington of no longer being a “beacon of human rights”, placing it on a par with Russia, North Korea and Nicaragua. According to French diplomatic sources cited by the American website Puck, the Trump administration decided to turn the controversy into diplomatic retaliation. The choice of Lechevallier as a target is reportedly no coincidence. The diplomat is very close to French President Emmanuel Macron: they have known each other since their days at the École nationale d’administration (ENA). For Washington, therefore, targeting Lechevallier means indirectly targeting the French president. Further complicating the matter are the ties between Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, and Barrot. Kushner has already been summoned twice to Paris over his comments on French domestic politics, including harsh criticism of Macron regarding the fight against anti-Semitism. France and the United States sought to reach a compromise: Washington first demanded the deletion of the tweet and then a public apology; Paris refused, eventually accepting the idea of a new message celebrating shared democratic values. But the tweet never materialised. Il Foglio contacted the Quai d’Orsay, which preferred not to comment in detail on the matter, referring instead to an AFP report mentioning ongoing attempts between Paris and Washington to break the deadlock over the appointment.