Emmanuel Macron ditches traditional Bastille Day interview because his thoughts are 'too complex'

Emmanuel Macron will not take part in the traditional Bastille Day television interview because the French president's thoughts are deemed to be "too complex" for the press.

Each year on 14 July, the president takes part in a televised conference, but an official from the Elysée Palace said Macron's "complex thought process lends itself badly to the game of question-and-answer with journalists".

The choice to ditch the conference came despite Macron saying he would take part in the interview on 20 June while out cycling in the Le Touquet resort.

Since becoming president in May, he has given just one press interview, which was to a single French outlet and a group of European journalists.

The interview normally takes place after the military parade along the Champs Elysées, which this year will be attended by US president Donald Trump.

Another reason cited for the cancelled interview was that the next day, he will be appearing at the Palace of Versailles to address a rare session of both houses of parliament.

Bastille Day is held on the 14 July each year and marks the moment that a mob stormed the prison bearing the same name in 1789, freeing the inmates in a dramatic turning point for the French Revolution.

Macron, a former investment banker, won the presidency in the election on 7 May after robustly defeating Marine Le Pen of the Front National, the leading far-right party in France.

His centrist party, En Marche, which was only formed a year before he took power, then managed to win a large majority in the French parliament.

En Marche secured 350 of the 577 seats in the French National Assembly during the elections in June. The Republicans were the second-largest party, winning 136 seats, though this was an overall loss of 93. Le Pen won a seat with the Front National, which picked up eight seats in total.