“The battlefield is a scene of fixed chaos. The winner would be the one who controls that chaos, each his personal and the enemy’s” — Napoleon Bonaparte, French army commander and political chief.
“My, my, at Waterloo, Napoleon did give up” — Abba, Swedish army historians.
All our political leaders need energy (whether or not they admit it or not), however few will handle to safe even a fraction of that achieved — for good or sick — by Napoleon Bonaparte, the topic of a brand new blockbuster film out this week.
However which of our present crop of leaders — and a few from the not-so-distant previous — can match as much as Napoleon? To search out out, we’ve give you a completely non-scientific rating system, during which we take a number of of Napoleon’s extra well-known traits to see who finest lives as much as him.
Emmanuel Macron
Severely? If anybody could be described as the fashionable incarnation of Napoleon, it’s France’s present emperor, along with his penchant for the projection of French glory and love of gilded palatial interiors. Macron, like Bonaparte, grew up exterior Paris and got here out of nowhere to storm the political world and seize energy in file time.
Commemorating the bicentennial of Napoleon’s dying in 2021, Macron absolutely embraced the emperor’s huge legacy in constructing many of the trendy French state’s establishments, from the penal and civil codes to the appellate court docket and excessive faculties. He described him as each “ogre and eagle, Alexander and Nero … the soul of the world and the demon of Europe.”
Macron can also be, like Napoleon, not the primary individual you’d go to for those who wanted assist reaching an merchandise on a excessive shelf.
Petr Pavel
The Czech president has really been a soldier and seen lively service, rising to the rank of military common. Pavel additionally seems badass whereas using his motorcycle, which Napoleon would undoubtedly have carried out if that they had been invented. Disappointingly tall.
Ursula von der Leyen
Napoleon slept on a camp mattress on marketing campaign, identical to the European Fee president within the Berlaymont. Nevertheless, von der Leyen is a nice horsewoman whereas Napoleon was a poor rider, finest suited to the artillery. Certainly, Napoleon’s willingness to sacrifice numerous horses in struggle ultimately undermined his army ambitions. His most well-known horse, Marengo, outlived him whereas von der Leyen’s pet pony, Dolly, fared much less properly, being killed by a wolf.
Olaf Scholz
Meets the peak requirement however falls desperately, er, brief in different areas. Whereas Scholz is massive on army spending, as was Napoleon, the German chancellor selected to do his nationwide service in a house for the aged quite than in a barracks.
Scholz was additionally a floppy-haired leftie as a younger man, and Napoleon would have fired grapeshot at him to clear him and his sort off the streets.
Boris Johnson
Within the Egyptian marketing campaign, Napoleon deserted his troops and ran again dwelling, placing his personal pursuits above these of his troopers. Remind you of anybody?
Napoleon was additionally a womanizer — his nemesis, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, is claimed to have seduced two of Napoleon’s many former mistresses, opera singer Giuseppina Grassini and actress Marguerite-Joséphine Weimer. The French emperor is believed to have fathered eight kids (one fewer than Johnson, so far as we all know).
Donald Trump
Has a really excessive opinion of himself, which may be very Napoleon-like. However a number of factors eliminated for being genuinely fearful of any sort of combating (that doesn’t contain social media posts in ALL CAPS).
In keeping with his former lawyer, Trump stated he made up a pretend damage to keep away from army service, as a result of “I wasn’t going to Vietnam.” Whereas Trump obtained a physician’s letter that he had bone spurs in his heels, Napoleon shrugged off a bullet within the ankle on the battle of Regensburg. The French commander was even undeterred from a army profession by a bayonet wound within the thigh.
Whereas the Brumaire coup of 1799 introduced Napoleon to energy as First Consul of France, the coup of January 6, 2021 didn’t convey Trump again to the White Home.
Vladimir Putin
Like Napoleon, Putin loves a palace and, like Napoleon, Putin loves a struggle.
Napoleon is believed to have died after being poisoned — “I die earlier than my time, murdered by the English oligarchy and its murderer” — with one story going that arsenic vapors from the perfidious British wallpaper on Saint Helena completed him off. Putin, in the meantime, loves an excellent poisoning, so long as his goons are those administering it. And whereas Napoleon is lengthy lifeless, Putin is unquestionably alive (because the Kremlin is at pains to level out each week).
Keir Starmer
One among Napoleon’s most well-known quotes is: “When your enemy is making a fallacious transfer, you need to be cautious to not interrupt them.” This mantra has been very a lot taken to coronary heart by the U.Okay. Labour chief, who does nearly nothing whereas his political opponents shoot themselves repeatedly within the foot and face.