Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (French: [emanɥɛl makʁɔ̃]; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has been President of France since 2017. Macron is ex officio one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. He previously was Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs under President François Hollande from 2014 to 2016 and Deputy Secretary-General to the President from 2012 to 2014. He is a founding member of Renaissance, a centrist political party.
Emmanuel Macron
François Hollande
Renaissance
(2016–present)
- Socialist Party
(2006–2009) - Independent
(2009–2016)
- Jean-Michel Macron (father)
Laurence Auzière-Jourdan (stepdaughter)
14 May 2017 – present
Born in Amiens, Macron studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, later completing a master's degree in public affairs at Sciences Po and graduating from the École nationale d'administration in 2004. He worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances and later became an investment banker at Rothschild & Co.
Appointed Élysée deputy secretary-general by President François Hollande shortly after his election in May 2012, Macron was one of Hollande's senior advisers. Appointed Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs in August 2014 in the second Valls government, he led a number of business-friendly reforms. He resigned in August 2016, in order to launch his 2017 presidential campaign. A member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, he ran in the election under the banner of En Marche, a centrist and pro-European political movement he founded in April 2016.
Partly as a result of the Fillon affair which sank the Republican nominee François Fillon's chances, Macron topped the ballot in the first round of voting, and was elected President of France on 7 May 2017 with 66.1% of the vote in the second round, defeating Marine Le Pen of the National Front. At the age of 39, he became the youngest president in French history. In the 2017 legislative election in June, his party, renamed La République En Marche! (LREM), secured a majority in the National Assembly. He appointed Édouard Philippe as prime minister. When Philippe resigned in 2020, Macron appointed Jean Castex to replace him.
Macron was elected to a second term in the 2022 presidential election, again defeating Le Pen, thus becoming the first French presidential candidate to win reelection since Jacques Chirac defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002. However, in the 2022 legislative election, his centrist coalition lost its absolute majority, resulting in a hung parliament and the formation of France's first minority government since the fall of the Bérégovoy government in 1993. Macron's current prime minister is Gabriel Attal, youngest head of government in French history and first openly gay man to hold the office, whom he appointed in January 2024 to replace Élisabeth Borne, the second female Prime Minister of France, after a major government crisis.
During his presidency, Macron has overseen several reforms to labour laws, taxation, and pensions; and has pursued a renewable energy transition. Dubbed "president of the rich" by political opponents, increasing protests against his domestic reforms and demanding his resignation marked the first years of his presidency, culminating in 2018–2020 with the yellow vests protests and the pension reform strike. From 2020, he led France's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination rollout. In 2023, the government of his prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, passed legislation raising the retirement age from 62 to 64; the pension reforms proved controversial and led to public sector strikes and violent protests. In foreign policy, he called for reforms to the European Union (EU) and signed bilateral treaties with Italy and Germany. Macron conducted €42 billion in trade and business agreements with China during the China–United States trade war and oversaw a dispute with Australia and the United States over the AUKUS security pact. He continued Opération Chammal in the war against the Islamic State and joined in the international condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Early life[edit]
Macron was born on 21 December 1977 in Amiens. He is the son of Françoise Macron (née Noguès), a physician, and Jean-Michel Macron, professor of neurology at the University of Picardy.[1][2] The couple divorced in 2010. He has two siblings, Laurent, born in 1979, and Estelle, born in 1982. Françoise and Jean-Michel's first child was stillborn.[3]
The Macron family legacy is traced back to the village of Authie, Picardy.[4] One of his paternal great-grandfathers, George William Robertson, was English, and was born in Bristol, United Kingdom.[5][6] His maternal grandparents, Jean and Germaine Noguès (née Arribet), are from the Pyrenean town of Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Gascony.[7] He commonly visited Bagnères-de-Bigorre to visit his grandmother Germaine, whom he called "Manette".[8] Macron associates his enjoyment of reading[9] and his leftward political leanings to Germaine, who, after coming from a modest upbringing of a stationmaster father and a housekeeping mother, became a teacher then a principal, and died in 2013.[10]
Although raised in a non-religious family, Macron was baptised a Catholic at his own request at age 12; he is agnostic today.[11]
Macron was educated mainly at the Jesuit institute Lycée la Providence[12] in Amiens[13] before his parents sent him to finish his last year of school[14] at the elite Lycée Henri-IV in Paris, where he completed the high school curriculum and the undergraduate program with a "Bac S, Mention Très bien". At the same time, he was nominated for the "Concours général" (most selective national level high school competition) in French literature and received his diploma for his piano studies at Amiens Conservatory.[15] His parents sent him to Paris due to their alarm at the bond he had formed with Brigitte Auzière, a married teacher with three children at Jésuites de la Providence, who later became his wife.[16]
In Paris, Macron twice failed to gain entry to the École normale supérieure.[17][18][19] He instead studied philosophy at the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense, obtaining a DEA degree (a master level degree), with a thesis on Machiavelli and Hegel.[12][20] Around 1999 Macron worked as an editorial assistant to Paul Ricoeur, the French Protestant philosopher who was then writing his last major work, La Mémoire, l'Histoire, l'Oubli. Macron worked mainly on the notes and bibliography.[21][22] Macron became a member of the editorial board of the literary magazine Esprit.[23]
Macron did not perform national service because he was pursuing his graduate studies. Born in December 1977, he belonged to the last cohort for whom military service was mandatory.[24][25]
Macron obtained a master's degree in public affairs at Sciences Po, majoring in "Public Guidance and Economy" before training for a senior civil service career at the selective École nationale d'administration (ENA), training at the French Embassy in Nigeria[26] and at the prefecture of Oise before graduating in 2004.[27]
Professional career[edit]
Inspector of Finances[edit]
After graduating from ENA in 2004, Macron became an Inspector in the Inspection générale des finances (IGF), a branch of the Finance Ministry.[21] Macron was mentored by Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the then-head of the IGF.[28] During his time as an Inspector of Finances, Macron gave lectures during the summer at the "prep'ENA" (a special cram school for the ENA entrance examination) at IPESUP, an elite private school specializing in preparation for the entrance examinations of the Grandes écoles, such as HEC or Sciences Po.[29][30][31]
In 2006, Laurence Parisot offered him the job of managing director for Mouvement des Entreprises de France, the largest employer federation in France, but he declined.[32]
In August 2007, Macron was appointed deputy rapporteur for Jacques Attali's "Commission to Unleash French Growth".[13] In 2008, Macron paid €50,000 to buy himself out of his government contract.[33] He then became an investment banker in a highly-paid position at Rothschild & Cie Banque.[34][35] In March 2010, he was appointed to the Attali Commission as a member.[36]
Investment banker[edit]
In September 2008, Macron left his job as an Inspector of Finances and took a position at Rothschild & Cie Banque.[37] Macron left the government when Nicolas Sarkozy became president. He was originally offered the job by François Henrot. His first responsibility at the bank was assisting with the acquisition of Cofidis by Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe.[38]
Macron formed a relationship with Alain Minc, a businessman on the supervisory board of Le Monde.[39] In 2010, Macron was promoted to partner with the bank after working on the recapitalization of Le Monde and the acquisition by Atos of Siemens IT Solutions and Services.[40] In the same year, Macron was put in charge of Nestlé's acquisition of Pfizer's infant nutrition division for €9 billion, which made him a millionaire.[41][42]
In February 2012, Macron advised businessman Philippe Tillous-Borde, the CEO of the Avril Group.[43]
Macron reported that he had earned €2 million between December 2010 and May 2012.[44] Official documents show that between 2009 and 2013, Macron had earned almost €3 million.[45] He left Rothschild & Cie in 2012.[46][47]
Co-prince of Andorra[edit]
As president of France, Macron also serves ex officio as one of the two co-princes of Andorra. His chief of staff Patrick Strzoda serves as his representative in this capacity. Joan Enric Vives i Sicília, appointed as the current Bishop of Urgell on 12 May 2003, serves as Macron's co-prince. Macron swore the Constitution of Andorra through Strzoda in an act that took place on 15 June 2017 in Casa de la Vall.[334]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Andorran government asked France for economic aid, but Macron refused, arguing that the Bank of France could not offer loans to another country without the approval of the European Central Bank.[335]