by Stefano Montefiori
Macron, 44, won the first round of the French presidential election and is now seeking reconfirmation. Next to him, as always, is his wife Brigitte
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS When Emmanuel Macron was elected in 2017, he was the youngest president in the history of the French Republic at 39. An achievement that after winning the first ballot with more than 28 percent of the votes is now trying to confirm with a second (and by law last) five years under conditions that have changed significantly compared to the first victory.
Emmanuel Macron was born on December 21, 1977 in Amiens, a twohour drive north of Paris, to a neurologist father and a paediatrician father. Emmanuel Macron was a star student at La Providence Catholic School in Amiens and graduated from the General French Competition at the age of 16. In the theater class of the high school, at this age, Macron met the French teacher Brigitte Trogneux, married, three children, 24 years older than him, who will become his wife a few years later.
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Expelled from Amiens by his family, concerned about the complicated relationship with Brigitte Trogneux, Macor moved to Paris to attend France’s most famous grammar school, Henri IV, then entered Sciences Po and earned a degree in political philosophy at the University of Nanterre and finally joined ENA in 2002, the College of French Public Administration (which he will abolish once he becomes President).
2007, the crucial meeting with Jacques Attali, the economist and former adviser to Franois Mitterrand, who chose Macron as his collaborator to write the report on French productivity requested by thenPresident Sarkozy. The crucial meeting, although Macron leaves public office the following year and becomes a merchant banker with Rothschild: Attali introduces Macron to Franois Hollande, a meeting destined to change the life of the young man from Amiens.
When Franois Hollande wins the 2012 elections by defeating Sarkozy, he remembers the brilliant Macron and appoints him as his adviser at the Elysée. After initial experience as deputy secretary general of the presidency of the republic, Hollande elected him the new economy minister in 2014. In Bercy, where the ministry is based, Macron stands out with the liberalizations of the Macron Law that are provoking protests from the leftwing majority.
With Hollande’s difficulties now becoming apparent and his reelection increasingly unlikely, Macron left government in 2016 and founded his En Marche! movement. Despite not easy beginnings, accompanied by unanimous perplexity it will not work without a real party, the two machines of the Socialists and the Gaullists will crush him, behind him there is emptiness Emmanuel Macron wins 7 66.10% of the votes ahead of Marine Le Pen stood at 33.90% after a memorable televised duel in which she outclassed her rival in skill and confidence.
When Macron becomes president by promising to be right and left, while repeating the formula he expresses for a political vision, namely the desire to unite, to break down ideological barriers, to seek the common good beyond logic party, the encounter with reality puts him to the test. His politics are primarily rightwing, which is the area where he chooses his key ministers (from Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and then Jean Castex to Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire).
The crises that followed from the Yellow Vests revolt to the pandemic to the war in Ukraine underscore Macron’s ability to deal with difficult situations, but also a tendency to be perceived as distant by citizens who accuse him of being president become the rich. A label that is making its reelection in the crucial second round on April 24 less obvious than it seemed a few weeks ago, despite the firstround lead over Le Pen (wider than the polls predicted) and support coming from the Rivals Jadot (Greens), Pecresse (Republicans) and Hidalgo (Socialists).
April 10, 2022 (Change April 10, 2022 | 20:30)
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