Mr Macron has given just one interview to the press - to a group of European journalists and France’s Le Figaro newspaper - since he was elected last month after a meteoric rise in just one year to from relative obscurity to the pinnacle of power.

Now he is shunning the TV interview French presidents usually hold on Bastille Day after attending the military parade on the Champs Elysées, which this year will include US President Donald Trump among its spectators.

The decision to ditch the interview came despite Mr Macron himself telling a journalist - who ran after him as the former banker was cycling around the Le Touquet holiday resort - that he would answer media questions on July 14.