Emmanuel Macron

• Born: December 21, 1977
• Place of Birth: Amiens, France

• President of France
• Education: Paris Nanterre University; Paris Institute of Political Studies; École Nationale d’Administration
• Significance: A former economy minister, Emmanuel Macron formed the centrist En Marche! political party in France in 2016 and became a frontrunner in the country’s presidential race. He defeated Marine Le Pen and was elected president of France in May 2017 at age thirty-nine, making him the youngest president in the nation’s history. Macron was elected to a second term as president in 2022.

Background

Emmanuel Macron was born on December 21, 1977, in Amiens, France, the eldest child of Jean-Michel Macron and Françoise Macron-Nogues, who were both doctors. Macron’s intellect was evident from an early age, and he showed an aptitude for literature, politics, and theater. After attending La Providence, a local Jesuit school, Macron completed his high school education at the prestigious Lycée Henri-IV, a public secondary school in Paris. After graduation, he went on to study philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, part of the Academy of Versailles in Nanterre, France, and public affairs at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). Macron graduated in 2004 from the elite École Nationale d’Administration, an institute that provides initial training of senior French officials.

After graduating, Macron worked for the French finance ministry as an inspector. In 2007, he was chosen by then French president Nicolas Sarkozy to join the bipartisan Attali Commission on Economic Growth. The following year, Macron left civil service for a job in investment banking at Rothschild & Co. There, he quickly rose through the ranks to become managing director. He played a key role in advising Nestlé’s $12 billion acquisition of a division of Pfizer in 2012.

Life’s Work

Macron’s exodus from civil service was short-lived, and he returned to the political realm in 2012. When Socialist Party leader François Hollande was elected president that year, Macron became deputy secretary-general at Élysée Palace, the official residence of the president of France. Macron’s focus in the role was on financial matters, and he handled an early challenge by helping broker a compromise with Germany over the ongoing eurozone crisis. Macron was named France’s minister of the economy and finance in 2014. The following year, he put together a package of deregulatory measures to aid France’s economy, in what became known as Macron’s Law. The law also took aim at France’s transportation sector, creating less expensive options for people to travel across the country by bus.

In 2016, Macron formed a new centrist political party in France called En Marche! In August of that year, he announced he was stepping down from his role as economy minister. Shortly after, in November of 2016, Macron formally announced his candidacy in the 2017 presidential election. Despite a lack of experience as an elected official—all of his prior roles in government had been appointed positions—Macron garnered support from both sides of the political spectrum. His popular proposals included lowering corporate and housing taxes and reforming the country’s welfare and pension systems to devote more resources to defense, energy, the environment, and transportation.

Boosted by favorable media coverage and the stumbles of his more experienced opponents, Macron surged to the front of the polls. At the end of the first round of voting on April 23, 2017, he finished first ahead of Marine Le Pen of the National Front, a far-right nationalist party. Since no candidate won a majority of the votes in the first round, a runoff election was held on May 7 between Macron and Le Pen. This marked the first time since the formation of the French Fifth Republic in 1958 that none of the traditional right-left political parties were represented in the final round of voting. The presidential runoff presented a stark contrast in candidates, with Macron pushing free trade and a strong European Union and Le Pen seizing the tide of nationalism that had swept her once controversial party into the mainstream.

Shortly before the official close of campaigning on May 5, 2017, Macron’s team announced he had been subjected to a large, coordinated hacking operation. The hack resulted in his personal and business documents being posted to a file-sharing site online. The data breach seemed to have little influence on the election, however. When the polls closed on May 7, 2017, Macron won more than 66 percent of the vote to defeat Le Pen, making him the youngest president in French history at age thirty-nine. Macron’s rise to power was not without controversy, however. In 2016, a probe was launched to investigate possible favoritism over an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Macron, as French economy minister, was the main speaker. It was alleged that public relations giant Havas Worldwide was given the contract to organize an event promoting French technology start-ups at the Consumer Electronics Show without competition. Macron was also accused of using public funds to finance his presidential campaign.

As president, Macron remained controversial due to a number of scandals that occurred since he took office in 2017. One of the largest scandals of Macron's presidency centered on the Mouvement des Gilets Jaunes, or the Yellow Vest protests. Named after the high-visibility vests worn by demonstrators, the Yellow Vest protests emerged in November 2018 over a fuel tax proposed by Macron. Controversial due to already high fuel prices in France, Macron's proposed tax instigated a series of (oftentimes violent) protests that soon encompassed other social and political issues including concerns about worker's rights and a high cost of living. Macron eventually cancelled the proposed tax after an estimated 3 million people attended the protests. Macron and the French police faced severe criticism for violently cracking down on the protests, which resulted in numerous serious injuries among protestors.

Following the cancellation of the proposed tax, the Yellow Vest protests slowly dwindled down due to both police efforts and the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. Throughout the remainder of 2020 and into 2021, Macron helped coordinate France's pandemic response, which included lockdowns and other public health measures and later focused on a vaccination campaign once COVID-19 vaccines became available. Although his support for vaccine mandates drew criticism from some French voters, Macron's approval level rose during the early months of the pandemic.

Macron's popularity grew further in 2022 due to approval over his leadership during the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022, and he announced in March 2022 that he planned to run in the 2022 French presidential election. In April of that same year, Macron defeated Marine Le Pen in the final round of the French presidential election and secured a second term as the president of France.

Macron appointed Elisabeth Borne as prime minister in 2022. Born was a member of his party Renaissance and the second female prime minister in the country's history. Borne served until 2024. After the 2022 parliamentary election, Macron lost his majority. His coalition then failed to get the 289 seats required for a majority in the National Assembly, which is the lower parliamentary house. Macron's government was forced to continue as a minority administration.

Macron faced a number of other challenges during his second term. He continued to oversee France's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and agreed to supply Ukraine with artillery, equipment, and, starting in January 2023, light tanks. That month, Macron also revealed his plans to increase France's military spending by over 100 billion euros. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Macron's economic policies periodically stirred up strong opposition. For example, in January and February 2023, Macron's plan to raise the retirement age in France triggered days-long protests involving roughly a million people across the country.

In March 2024, Macron supported Parliament's decision to protect abortion as a guaranteed freedom in France's Constitution. In January 2024, he appointed Gabriel Attal as prime minister. Attal was the first openly gay person to hold the office. After another defeat in the European Parliament elections in 2024, Macron dissolved the National Assembly and ordered a snap election, which is an early election, but this resulted in another parliamentary defeat. After this, in September 2024, Macron appointed Michel Barnier, whom some label as conservative, as prime minister.

Impact

Macron made his mark on history by becoming the youngest person to hold the French presidency. As president, Macron's popularity was affected by his policies—which detractors said benefited the rich and penalized the average French citizen—as well as the aforementioned controversies and scandals. His manner of leadership, which some argued bordered on authoritarian, occasionally drew unflattering comparisons to Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite this, Macron was praised for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for his efforts in reviving the French economy following COVID-19 related stagnation. Macron was also praised for taking a hardline stance against Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. Upon his victory in the 2022 French presidential election, Macron became the first French president to serve a second term since Jacques Chirac in 2002—which many argued was a testament to Macron's ability to successfully appeal to many different groups along the French political spectrum.

Personal Life

While in high school in Amiens, France, Macron fell in love with his drama teacher, Brigitte Trogneux, who is twenty-four years older and was then a married mother of three. Their affair was put on hold, but the pair later resumed their romance and married in 2007.

Bibliography

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Serhan, Yasmeen. “Emmanuel Macron’s Unexpected Shot at the French Presidency.” Atlantic, 8 Feb. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/02/macron-economics/515919/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Thomas, Leigh. “Economic Reforms Bear Fruit as France's Macron Seeks Re-Election.” Reuters, 7 Mar. 2022, www.reuters.com/world/europe/economic-reforms-bear-fruit-frances-macron-seeks-re-election-2022-03-07/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.