Emmanuel Macron: French president tests positive for coronavirus

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. We are all wishing you a speedy recovery.” The positive test came after a week in which Mr Macron had met with dozens of senior political figures across Europe, including the heads of the EU Council and Commission, and the prime ministers of Spain and Portugal, arousing fears the president could become an accidental Covid super-spreader among the continent’s rulers. The news of the French president’s positive test has led to several of his EU counterparts having to enter self-isolation, coming a week after Mr Macron joined other EU leaders at a summit in Brussels for discussions. Mr Macron met with the EU Council president Charles Michel and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Paris on Monday, before he welcomed the Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa to the Elysee palace for a working lunch on Wednesday, as well as chairing a cabinet meeting. The president’s third trip to the troubled Middle Eastern nation since the Beirut port explosion was due to start on 22 December and, although ostensibly was to visit French peacekeepers stationed there, would also have seen Mr Macron renewing his efforts to speed political and economic reform among the country’s corrupt and chaotic political class.