French President Emmanuel Macron decries nationalism when he’s taking his swipes at President Donald Trump.  But he’s only showing his nationalistic, cynical hypocrisy when he does that.

As The Wall Street Journal has noticed,

[T]he French are nationalist to the core. Ask the European parliamentarians and their staffers who must make the expensive, time-consuming, carbon-emitting trip from Brussels to Strasbourg once a month to maintain the absurd fiction that French Strasbourg is the home of the European Parliament. Ask any European negotiator who has tried to prune back the Common Agricultural Policy, a giant boondoggle under which France is the largest recipient of funds. Ask any Italian diplomat about French policies in Libya. Ask any American negotiator about France’s approach to trade.

And this from Germany’s Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor, Olaf Scholz on 28 November.

Here is my proposal: In the medium term, France’s seat on the Security Council could be converted into a seat for the EU. In return, France would then have the right to appoint the EU ambassador to the United Nations in perpetuity.

It really doesn’t get much more anti-nationalist than that, right?  Give up the nationalist seat in favor of a continental seat?

Macron and his anti-nationalist government demurred, the very next day.

When defending our national positions, we take all European positions into consideration. We actively participate, together with Germany and all other member states, in the coordination of the EU’s position.

Of course, you do.  So long, as it suits our national positions.

No, insists anti-nationalist Macron.  We’ll keep our French seat, thank you.