Emmanuel Macron

About

Emmanuel Macron is a French politician who has served as the President of France since May 14th, 2017, after he won the 2017 Presidential Election. Elected at the age of 39, he became the youngest Head of State in France since Napoleon.

History

Political Career

Emmanuel Macron started his political engagement in 2002 in various central-left organisations, before joining the Socialist Party (PS) from 2006 to 2009. In 2008, he left his public office as General Inspector of Finance to pursue a career as a private investment banker. In 2012, he was appointed as General Secretary of the Presidency by newly elected President François Hollande. Later, he served as Minister for Economy and Finance from 2014 to 2016, as part of the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls.^[1]

In 2016, he left his office as Minister of Economy and founded his own political party, "En Marche!" ("Onwards!") which was later renamed into "La République en Marche" (The Republic in Motion").

On May 7th, 2017, he won the second round of the Presidential Election, after facing off far-right candidate Marine Le Pen of the National Front party.^[2]

In April 2022, Macron was re-elected as President of France after again defeating Marine Le Pen.

2024 Dissolution of Assemblée Nationale

On June 9th, 2024, Macron announced the dissolution of the French legislative body and called for new elections three years earlier than originally planned. He set the date for these elections at June 30th, 2024, giving parties just three weeks to prepare. Macron's move was in response to the strong performance of the far-right Rassemblement National (the rebranded Front National party of Marine Le Pen) in the European parliamentary elections. Macron argued that the far right would be defeated in new, national-level elections, but many commentators at the time questioned his strategy. For many, Macron appeared to have made a "risky gamble" and some questioned his sanity.^[3]

In the days following Macron's announcement of new elections, the traditional French right collapsed in on itself with infighting. Les Républicains, the biggest traditional rightwing party, sacked their leader Eric Ciotti after he proposed an alliance with the far-right Front National. In a dramatic and highly-memed series of events, Ciotti barricaded himself in the party headquarters in Paris and was forced out by other members. @saarkartvelo posted the meme (seen below) describing Ciotti's barricade, receiving over 10,000 likes in a day on June 12th.^[5]

Another far-right party, Reconquete, was divided between members who supported a coalition with the other far-right parties and those who opposed such an arrangement. Following the collapse of the right wing of French politics, posters created memes sardonically praising Macron, some of them producing apology forms memes like the one (seen below) posted by @MingAutocrat on June 13th, 2024, receiving over 4,500 likes in a day.^[4]

Meanwhile, the parties of the French left united in one Popular Front to support a unified list of candidates for the new election. Criticism and disapproval ratings of Macron remained high.^[2]

The first round of the election resulted in a resounding defeat for Macron's party and a victory for the far-right.

Related Memes

Macron Screeching / Parce que c'est notre Projet

"Parce que c'est notre projet" ("because this is our project") is a memorable quote blurted out by Macron on december 10th, 2016. At the end of a campaign meeting, pobably carried away by enthusiasm, Macron started screaming his last sentences, before concluding his speech by saying "Because this is our project" in a loud, screechy voice (video shown below). The sentence has been widely parodied on french social media and is still strongly associated to Macron nowadays.

Poudre de Perlimpinpin

"Poudre de Perlimpinpin" (roughly translatable to "Magic Dust" or "Snake Oil") is an old-fashioned French expression describing something unrealistic. It has been associated with Macron after he quoted the phrase when debating Marine Le Pen during the Presidential debate on May 3rd, 2017.

Photoshop Parodies

Since the beginning of his presidential term, Macron has been a target of several photoshop memes, the most famous ones concerning his official presidential portrait. and his victory pose during the 2018 Football World Cup Final

"Jupiterian President"

"Jupiterian President" ("président jupitérien" in french) is a nickname given to Macron by his opponents following a 2016 interview^[6] in which Macron declared wanting to incarnate a stronger Presidency, in contrast to his predecessor François Hollande, who claimed to be a "Normal President." Some have mocked Macron's insistence on declaring himself "Jupiterian," which is a reference to the Roman version of the Greek god Zeus.

External References