President Macron says he will fight to keep ‘Emily in Paris’ in France

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will fight to ensure that the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris remains in Paris.

“We will fight hard!” he said in an interview to US magazine Variety, published on October 9. “‘Emily in Paris in Rome’ doesn’t make sense.”

The president was referring to the most recent series of the show, which shows Emily - who has spent the rest of the series primarily based in Paris - potentially leaving France for Rome, Italy.

 ‘Unfamiliar waters’

Emily Cooper, played by Lily Collins (the daughter of singer and drummer Phil Collins), is an American social media manager who comes to work at an agency in Paris.

The show has attracted love and criticism in almost equal measure for its portrayal of a sanitised, stereotypical version of Paris, French people and other French cities; its improbable high-fashion outfits; and romance-themed, social media-obsessed storylines.

Despite the critics, the show has repeatedly appeared on Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched lists, and has been described as a series that people “love to hate”.

Season 5 is expected to be set in both Rome and Paris, the show’s creator Darren Star has been reported as saying. He added that Emily “was becoming very comfortable in Paris [so] I wanted to throw her into some unfamiliar waters”.

Read also: I’m Parisian: Here’s my view on the clichéd vision of Emily in Paris 
Read also: Meet the woman who inspired Netflix’s 'Emily in Paris' 

Emily in Paris ‘super positive’ for France

Yet, Mr Macron has been among the French politicians to praise the series for being “good for the image of France”, and said that he wanted the series to remain in France. 

Mr Macron’s wife Brigitte even made a cameo in season four.

“‘Emily in Paris’ is super positive in terms of attractiveness for the country,” Macron said to Variety, adding that he was “super proud” of his wife for her role. “It was just [a cameo of] a few minutes, but I think it was a very good moment for her,” he said.

He joked that he would be unlikely to appear in any future episodes, however, as “I’m less attractive than Brigitte”, he said.

The interview also saw the president speaking about the success of the Olympics and Paralympics 2024 in France, and he admitted to getting emotional when Céline Dion sang on the Eiffel Tower during the Opening Ceremony.

He also called Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” which included France “impressive”, and said his favourite films were French classics from the 1960s and 1970s. 

Mr Macron also answered questions about the rise of the far-right in France, the country’s attempts to build a platform to rival Netflix, the European Union’s response to AI, the #MeToo movement, and the forthcoming US presidential elections.