Interior minister Gérald Darmanin has become a useful tool for the French president as he responds to growing calls for law and order following a spate of terror attacks.
'Keep calm and carry on,' an Élysée official said on Saturday, quoting the British wartime slogan in response to London's decision to assign four gunboats to prevent illegal fishing.
French fishermen have lobbied President Macron to stand firm on fishing rights but if a deal cannot be reached by January 1, it could mean French and other EU boats can no longer fish at all off the coast of the UK.
PM Jean Castex said that families would be allowed to travel to celebrate Christmas together in France but that museums, theatres and cinemas will remain closed for an extra three weeks as the number of new Covid-19 infections begins to slowly rise again.
Row erupted after Basaksehir assistant coach Pierre Webo, the former Cameroon international, was shown a red card during a row on the touchline with staff from the Turkish club appearing to accuse the Romanian fourth official of using a racist term.
The search and rescue helicopter was carrying out a training mission when it went down at 1,800 metres. The pilot was able to eject before alerting the local authorities to the incident.
The 65-year-old former president is accused of having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about an investigation involving him.
Fourteen people are appearing in court and three are being tried in absentia for the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine, a policewoman and a Jewish supermarket that left 17 people dead.
