Angelique Chrisafis at the Guardian tells us Macron went to the national domestic violence hotline to listen in on calls and got to hear a cop refuse to help a woman in danger.

Wearing headphones, the president sat silently listening in to calls being taken by an experienced hotline operator.

A distressed 57-year-old woman called in saying her violent husband had threatened to kill her after years of escalating abuse at home and that she had to leave. She was at the local police station. She said she had filed a police complaint but, fearing her husband would murder her, she had asked the police to accompany her home to safely retrieve her possessions before leaving. But the police refused.

“You’re in the police station? You’re in danger. Your husband is at home. The police can accompany you,” the operator assured the caller.

The woman said that the police were refusing to do so. Macron looked visibly angered and shook his head, but remained silent.

“They have to help a person in danger,” the operator insisted and asked to speak to the police officer.

In a call that lasted 15 minutes, the operator attempted in vain to persuade the gendarme to help, but the officer insisted it wasn’t his place to intervene. Unaware that the president was listening in, the officer said – wrongly – that he would need a judicial order to accompany the woman.

Macron silently shook his head and wrote a note on a piece of paper, handing it to the operator.

“It’s the gendarme’s job to protect her when there is a clear risk,” with or without any extra judicial permission, the note said.

The hotline operator continued to press the officer, at one point saying: “This woman is under threat of death, are you waiting until she’s actually killed?”

But the officer refused to act.

Macron was pissed. He asked the operator if that happens often and she said oh yes.

Let’s hope he does something about it.