The parable of a “hasty man”. This is how Le Monde defines the brilliant ascent to the throne of the Elysium of Emmanuel Macron, 39, from Amiens "unknown to the general public until two years ago, when he was Minister of the Economy". Since then, it was the summer of 2014, the one who will become the youngest president in the history of the French Republic has conquered popular consensus against all odds, step by step, setting up on his own less than a year ago when he founded his movement , "En Marche!", which distanced itself not only from the Executive of which it belonged (Hollande's mandate will be remembered as one of the least appreciated ever), but above all from extremisms - or populisms, if you prefer - which have become so fashionable, in France as elsewhere, in recent years.
Macron has therefore freed himself from any label, placing herself at the antipodes especially of Marine Le Pen, favored by the polls at the beginning of the electoral campaign and then a great defeat both in the first round and in the run-off, albeit with a sobering abstention rate: the French have partially confirmed the discontent not going to vote en masse. Indeed, one out of four eligible voters did not turn up to the polls for the second round: a record figure, the highest since the 1969 round, when Georges Pompidou won.
But who is the rising star of French and European politics, the man who saved the continent from a second blow after the United Kingdom's exit from the Union? His journey begins with the attending a Jesuit school in Amiens, his hometown. Then the degree in philosophy in Paris with a thesis on Niccolò Machiavelli, and finally in 2004 the diploma obtained at ENA, the Ecole nationale de l'Administration in Strasbourg where the entire French ruling class has been trained for decades.
Macron immediately began his career in public administration which culminated in 2007, when joins the Attal Commission, wanted by the then president Sarkozy to revive the French economy. In the same year, always prodigiously burning all the stages of success, he becomes banker of the Rothschild family: he is the youngest director of financial affairs in the history of the bank. His appointment takes place in September, ten days before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. He will handle, among other things, the biggest deal of 2012, the purchase by Nestle of Pfizer's baby food subsidiary: a 9 billion euro operation. He returned to dedicating himself to public affairs again in 2012, when at the beginning of the presidency Hollande was appointed deputy secretary general of the Elysée, which he now occupies as president.
Recent history is the two years as Minister of the Economy, during which Macron helped give birth to the controversial Loi Travail, the French-style Jobs Act that he would now like to confirm, while all his opponents in the presidential elections were proposing to change it. As head of the department of Bercy he also dealt with the thorny Renault case, to solve which he raised the State from 15 to 20% of the capital of the car company controlled by the Japanese Nissan. He resigned in August 2016, and only in mid-November did he announce his official candidacy for the presidency of the Republic: in seven months, once again forging ahead and overturning the forecasts that initially gave him around 10%, he reached the highest public office.
He says he is “a centrist who takes the best of the left and the best of the right” e his schedule it is all based on Europe and on economic reforms, first of all an unprecedented cut in public spending and the abolition of the first home tax for 80% of the French who pay it, as well as the reduction of the rate for companies from 33 to 25%. Since 2007 he has been married to Brigitte, 24 years his senior: During his high school years she had been his theater teacher. He plays the piano and in his spare time he loves to play tennis, but he doesn't disdain football either: he is a Marseille sympathizer, as well as a great fan of the Tour de France. Macron comes from a wealthy family, both parents are doctors. He has a brother and a sister, who followed in their parents' footsteps and also became doctors.
