Ambassador out + weed in + Macron fail

Dear Reader,

• We are used to tense diplomatic squabbles with Russia, Iran and China. There was even a period not so long ago when Turkey regularly dressed down German ambassadors over their keen interest in the plight of Erdogan’s domestic critics. But a rather more unusual country has entered the diplomatic ring with the Bundesrepublik this week. At the weekend, the central African country of Chad told Germany’s ambassador to pack his bags and leave. Berlin responded with the highly unusual step of telling Chad’s ambassador that she had 48 hours to leave the country. Kricke had apparently been too vocal in condemning the brutal suppression of a protest in October last year, when security forces loyal to the country’s new dictator, Mahamat Idriss Déby, shot and killed over 120 demonstrators at protest against the postponement of the national election. Or, as the desert state’s media put it: Kricke had shown “impolite behaviour.” While this might seem like an obscure stand-off with a cou…