Something has happened in Paris. Shafts of sunlight are visible through the clouds. The familiar blanket of morosit

é has been penetrated, if not by anything as un-French as exuberance, then at least by moments of cheer. Britain seems set on leaving its own continent. A new president in Washington is leading the US into belligerent isolationism. Every political story, it seems, has a bad ending. What if France defies the narrative?

The Brexit vote has dented badly the coherence of Europe. Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House has put in question the future of what we used to call the west. In its way, the coming French presidential election is just as consequential. A victory for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far right and Islamophobic National Front, would read the rites over European liberal democracy. The EU can survive Britain’s departure. Not so that of France.