French President Emmanuel Macron is facing accusations of trying to influence the selection of the next Pope following the death of Pope Francis on April 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome on April 21, 2025, a controversy has been brewing in Italy: some Italian media outlets suspect Macron of attempting to sway the outcome of the next papal conclave. The \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace firmly denied the allegations on Friday, May 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The French president, who attended the funeral in Rome, reportedly hosted a private lunch with four French cardinals at the French embassy. Although consistent with diplomatic protocol, the meeting drew sharp criticism from the Italian press. La Verit\u00e0<\/em> ran the headline \u201cMacron even wants to pick the Pope,\u201d while Libero<\/em> sarcastically wrote, \u201cMacron crashes the conclave too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tensions escalated further when Macron was also spotted with Andrea Riccardi, founder of the influential Sant\u2019Egidio Community and a prominent figure within the Catholic Church. The two have long-standing ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the growing controversy, the \u00c9lys\u00e9e issued a sharp rebuttal. On social media platform X (formerly Twitter), a screenshot of Libero<\/em>\u2019s article was posted with the word \u201cFALSE\u201d stamped in bold capital letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement relayed by RTL, the French presidency clarified that the luncheon was part of \u201crepublican tradition\u201d routinely observed by French heads of state attending papal funerals. \u201cSuch manipulation of information is beneath dignity,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Relations between President Macron and Pope Francis have often been nuanced. Though Macron paid tribute to the late pontiff and canceled a scheduled trip to attend the funeral, their rapport was far from flawless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pope Francis notably declined Macron\u2019s invitation to preside over the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral without offering an explanation. The two also held diverging views on sensitive issues such as abortion and assisted dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, they maintained a steady dialogue, marked by regular phone conversations and in-person meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French President Emmanuel Macron is facing accusations of trying to influence the selection of the next Pope following the death of Pope Francis on April 21. Since the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome on April 21, 2025, a controversy has been brewing in Italy: some Italian media outlets suspect Macron of attempting to sway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":527484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_trash_the_other_posts":false,"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"pays":[114],"personnalite":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-528550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-company-news-benews","8":"pays-world"},"acf":{"type_de_publication":"opinion","nom_de_linstitution":"","description_de_linstitution":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528588,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528550\/revisions\/528588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528550"},{"taxonomy":"pays","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pays?post=528550"},{"taxonomy":"personnalite","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/personnalite?post=528550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rumors intensify<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A complex relationship between Pope Francis and Macron<\/h2>\n\n\n\n