It’s an extension of Godwin’s Law – the contemporary adage that if you bring up the tyrant in online discussions, then you immediately lose your argument. 

It was astonishing, then, to see Le Monde – France’s traditional newspaper of record – apparently drawing parallels between Emmanuel Macron, once projected as France’s boy-next-door head of state, and the Führer.

Le Monde denied that the stark cover image on its M weekend magazine was meant to make Macron look like Hitler, but nevertheless apologised to the many readers who thought it did. [It did ...