Just two days after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a larger-than-expected 13% of the vote in Germany's federal elections over the weekend - dealing a staggering defeat to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat-led coalition which suffered its worst electoral showing since 1949 – French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a lesson in contrasts when he gave what the Financial Times described as "the most integrationist speech by a French leader since the creation of the euro."

Speaking to students at the Sorbonne in Paris, Macron said that "the challenge is vital: the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone," adding that "we need to trace the only path ensuring our future; it is the refoundation of a sovereign, united and democratic Europe."

In other words, a United States of Europe.