France's Mozart: Who is Emmanuel Macron?

Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron was born on December 21, 1977 in France. His birthplace, the city of Amiens, is located in northeastern France and is called the "Venice of the North".

His mother was a doctor and his father was a professor of neurology. Macron's life was greatly influenced by his grandmother, the headmistress of the college with whom he spent most of his childhood. Macron, who has a brother two years older than him and a sister five years younger, took piano lessons when he was little. His mastery at the piano earned him the nickname "The Mozart of Finance" years later in his professional life.

Although Macron's family is not religious, Macron was voluntarily baptized Catholic at the age of 12. He received his primary education in schools under the control of the Jesuit and Catholic church. After this education, he went to high school and university in Paris with his brother. He received a degree in philosophy from the University of Paris X-Nanterre. He was the assistant of the philosopher Paul Ricœur during the preparation process of La Mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli (Memory, history, forgetfulness) between 1999-2001. He earned a degree in political science from the Institute for Political Studies (IEP). Macron, who graduated from the National School of Administration (ENA), which is shown as the indispensable school of the managers of the last 60 years in France, learned about France and the French management system here between 2002-2004. During his education, he did an internship at the French Embassy in Nigeria.

Macron is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris and Ecole Nationale Administration (ENA), one of the most elite and successful schools in France, from which almost all senior executives graduate. It is worth noting that five of France's seven presidents graduated from Sciences Po Paris. Drawing a bright and successful profile, Macron climbed the career ladder very quickly.

After graduating from ENA, which is shown as the school of the elites in France and the executive factory of the state, Macron, who worked as a finance inspector between 2004-2008, has been in this process, economist and writer Jacques, who has been seen as the "hidden power of French politics" since 1980. He crossed with Attali.

Attali, who prepared a reform package report in the field of economy for the then President Nicolas Sarkozy, took Macron with him as his deputy. That same year, Macron married Brigitte Trogneux, a theater teacher 24 years older than him, whom he met when he was 15.

Resigning from the civil service after meeting Attali, the "mentor" of the French administration, Macron continued his career in the private sector and took a job at Rothschild Bank. In this role, where he worked until 2012, he oversaw the acquisition of a branch of Pfizer by Nestlé. He became a millionaire by managing this 9 billion euro process. In the last 4 years with investment and finance negotiations, he has learned to make decisions about companies around the world and to take steps that shape the financial sector. In the same period, he met President François Hollande and received an offer to work together. This meeting, which took place just before the 2012 presidential elections, paved the way for Macron to first become Hollande's adviser and later become the Deputy Secretary General of the President at the Elysee Palace. Hollande had full confidence in this 34-year-old liberal adviser and appointed Macron as Minister of Economy in 2014.

Macron, who founded the En Marche (Walk) Movement, which started with the initials of his name and surname in April 2016, resigned from the Ministry of Economy in August the same year and declared his independent candidacy for the presidential elections.

The road from new party to presidency in a year

Macron left his party in 2016 and founded Le Republique en Marche (LREM), the Progressive Republic, which is more liberal in economic terms and more central in politics. Positioning himself in the center, he received support from both right and left voters and carried himself and his party to the second round in the 2017 elections. In the second round, he competed with Marine Le Pen, leader of the Rassemblement National. For some voters, he was the good for bad, for some, he was the idealistic, central candidate. As a matter of fact, he achieved a great victory against Le Pen and was elected the new president of France on May 7, 2017, with 65 percent of the votes.

April 2022

Emmanuel Macron became the first French President to be elected twice in a row in 20 years. He took office again with 58% of the valid votes against his opponent, Marie Le Pen. The rate of those who did not participate in the elections was determined as 28.2%. This was recorded as the highest rate since 1969. The voter turnout was 71.8%.

There had been presidents who had their second term on the Elysee before. François Mitterand won their second election in 1988 and Jacques Chirac in 2002.

Charles de Gaulle also won the election in 1965 and lived his second term, but he was not elected in his first term.