No expenses spared when French president entertains foreign dignitaries

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office racked up a multi-million euro budget overrun last year as it pulled out the stops on a lavish lobster dinner for Britain’s King Charles and other state banquets, the public audit office said.

News of the presidency’s spending jars with the outgoing government’s message that France can ill afford its current levels of public spending, among the highest in the world in relation to the size of the economy.

Macron treated the King and...