We can never hope for an objective view of where we are in the world

As a European expat in the US, it has become clear that every country has its own view of itself and its place in world events, writes Holly Baxter

Boris Johnson’s Partygate fines were the subject of amused interest among my US colleagues (Getty)

When you’re a European expat living in the US, it’s always interesting to see what continental conflict filters through. Do Americans pay attention to what’s going on in France and Germany, say, but not Austria and Italy? Have they got any idea what Prime Minister’s Questions is, or the House of Lords? Do they feel as unsettled by the gains of Marine Le Pen, even though she was defeated roundly by Macron, and do they really consider, as many Brits do, that Boris Johnson is a “wannabe Trump”?

The past couple weeks have proven a few unexpected things. First of all, the French election made not much of a dent on American TV coverage – although here in The Independent’s New York bureau, we kept watch on the results with a keen eye. Our people and entertainment reporter, Clemence Michallon, hails from Paris, and cast her vote at a French school in upper Manhattan during the weekend. When casting a ballot in France, one takes two pieces of paper into a cubicle during the second round: this year, one bore the name of Macron and the other, Le Pen. Inside the cubicle, the voter seals one piece of paper inside an envelope and then emerges to drop the envelope into a ballot box, meaning you leave holding the piece of paper bearing the name of the candidate you chose not to vote for. This, Clemence told us, meant that she had a good indication of how the Upper East Side dwellers holding French citizenship felt about the election: outside the polling station, pavements and trashcans were filled with tiny little scraps of paper bearing the moniker “MARINE LE PEN”.