by Elisa Messina
Ironies and comments after the President’s shot in Marseille, posted on Instagram by his official photographer
Election campaigns are also told in detail. And the detail of the open white shirt on French President Emmanuel Macron’s hairy chest was in the spotlight of French media and social networks throughout Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Next Sunday the country will decide on the Elysée’s next tenant, but this shot by Soazig de la Moissonniere, the president’s official photographer, seems to have sparked more comment than any heated rally. So, after the case of the President with the paratrooper sweatshirt, here is the case of the President on the sofa with his shirt open and his chest bare. But there was plenty of irony added to the conspiracy here.
Let’s summarize the situation: On Saturday, April 16, Macron is in Marseille with his wife and his collaborators (including his photographer) for an intense day of campaigning that culminated in the big openair rally. He must win the votes left by the leftist candidate JeanLuc Mélenchon in the first round of voting on a hot April day. The Instagram post summarizes President’s Day in 10 photos (the title is candidate’s day), 10 snaps that encapsulate commitment, enthusiasm and dynamism. We start with the photo of Macron and Brigitte looking out the window at the city, then there’s him running quickly up a flight of stairs, he tying his tie, running onto the stage, speaking surrounded by young people , he who climbs (always running) up a flight of stairs. And always sporting that JFKesque look—white shirt, dark billowy tie, rolledup sleeves—that has become his trademark. And then, here’s the ninth surprising shot: Macron, tired (inevitable, he’s always in a hurry) but smiling, slumped on a beige leather sofa, his Kennedy shirt unbuttoned on his chest and his poilu (hairy chest) twisted in sight .
“It was very, very hot in Marseille,” the president explained with a laugh on France C television on Monday night, admitting that while this photo, like all the others, passed under his approval, perhaps he hadn’t given enough thought to one . As if maybe it would be better not to post it… but also that it wasn’t so bad in the end that it was talked about a lot. Looking at the comments below the post, alongside applause for the photographer for her excellent work, there is no shortage of compliments on the President’s charm and references to the “heat”.
It is enough to scroll through the portraits of Macron that Soazig de la Moissonniere has made over time to understand that one of the president’s powerful electoral weapons is his image. And if the photo with the paratrooper sweatshirt and the twoday beard should convey the image of a casual Macron close to the “Zelenski style” at a time when France also stands in solidarity with Ukraine and supplies them with weapons, now they are also intense Closeups of the President frowning, posing spontaneously with his tie or jacket unbuttoned on his shoulder, or walking or working at a desk with one hand on papers and the other with a cup of coffee. Of course, the open shirt on the hairy chest was missing from the collection.
But what was Monsieur le President trying to convey to his constituents other than precise ingestion of the potion as opposed to using the razor? The last “Frenchman in weight” who likes to be photographed like this is the charming philosopher BernardHenri Lévy, who is noted on television together with an amused Macron, the conductor Bertrand Chameroy. Except that Piacione Levy (BHL for the French) shaves her chest, while Macron, in this (seemingly) spontaneous shot, reveals a ’70s masculinity, less hairless. A little Demis Roussos, a little Sean Connery, in short. Back to the days when James Bond kept his shaggy highlander charm under his tuxedo.
April 19, 2022 (Change April 19, 2022 | 15:09)
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