Is Emily moving from Paris to Rome? France’s Emmanuel Macron is concerned and said he will ‘fight hard’ to ensure the American TV show is not set in Italy’s capital in its fifth season. Now, the Rome mayor has mocked him, saying Emily is ‘doing great’ in his city. But why are they squabbling over the Netflix series?

The American TV series Emily in Paris has helped French tourism tremendously, but for the next fifth season, its main character is moving to Rome.

Even if Emily’s departure from the city of love has been confirmed by Netflix, French President Emmanuel Macron is not buying it.

He says France is going to “fight hard” to stop the show from relocating to Italy’s capital.

The Roman mayor has mocked him, saying Emily is “doing great in Rome.”

But why are the European nations fighting over a TV show?

Let’s take a look.

What’s the show about?

Emily in Paris centres around Lily Collins’ character Emily Cooper, an American marketing executive who relocates from Chicago to Paris for work and takes pleasure in the French capital’s charms.

The show, which began streaming at the height of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, frequently ranks among Netflix’s most-watched shows.

Netflix has renewed the TV show for a fifth season, with its creator and showrunner, Darren Star, saying Emily will now “have a presence in Rome.”

The show has won fans with its idealised and romanticised version of life in Paris but has also been criticised for often bearing little resemblance to the reality of life in the capital, and for avoiding Paris’ poorer areas.

“It’s a saccharine series filled with stereotypes, and yet we can’t get ourselves to totally hate it,” said the French culture magazine Telerama when the show first aired.

What did Macron say?

France’s President Macron, in an interview with Variety published Wednesday, said, “We will ask them to remain in Paris, Emily in Paris in Rome doesn’t make sense.”

Notably, Macron has long been associated with the show.

His wife, Brigitte, made a cameo in season four when Emily spotted her in a café and asked for a selfie.

Brigitte also shares an Emily social media post from season one in the fictional world of the show, in which Emily expressed shock that the French word for vagina, le vagin, is male.

“I was super proud, and she was very happy to do it,” Macron said about his wife’s cameo.

“It’s just a few minutes, but I think it was a very good moment for her. I think it’s good for the image of France. Emily in Paris is super positive in terms of attractiveness for the country. For my own business, it’s a very good initiative.”

But despite his wife’s associations with the show, Macron has no plans to make his own cameo appearance.

“I’m less attractive than Brigitte,” he told Variety.

How did Rome respond?

Following the remarks made by the French president, Rome’s Mayor Roberto Gualtieri responded teasingly on X, writing, “Dear Emmanuel Macron, don’t worry: Emily is doing great in Rome. And one can’t control the heart: let’s let her choose.”

Gualtieri added in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter Roma: “Doesn’t President Macron have more pressing matters to worry about?”

“I would like to believe, at least I would like to hope, that Macron was joking because he ought to know that a production company like Netflix does not take orders from heads of state or make decisions based on political pressure,” he added.

Gualtieri also said that he spoke about Macron’s comments with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and they both laughed about it.

“We see Emily’s move to Rome as a confirmation that our city is becoming more and more important, and we are quite relaxed about Netflix production decisions. They know what they are doing. To be honest, we think Macron should just relax,” he said.

Why are the countries fighting over the TV show?

According to a January research by France’s National Centre of Cinematography, despite criticism from some French viewers for clinging to Parisian clichés and ignoring problems like homelessness in the city, the show has increased tourism to the nation’s capital.

The study was conducted among six nationalities: Belgians, Spaniards, Americans, Britons, Germans and Chinese.

The study discovered that almost 10 per cent of visitors chose to travel to France as a result of watching a certain film or television show, and in 38 per cent of those cases, Emily in Paris served as the source of inspiration for a trip to France.

These days, the Paris tourist office recommends 10 must-see locations where important sequences were shot. Online searches for migrating to the city are believed to have increased significantly as a result of the series.

A big-budget film boosts tourism by roughly 31 per cent on average.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that when Netflix announced Emily’s departure from Paris, Macron didn’t like it.