Emmanuel Macron Quotes
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Born in Amiens, Macron studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University. He completed a master's degree in public affairs at Sciences Po and graduated from the École nationale d'administration in 2004. He worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances and investment banker at Rothschild & Co. Appointed Élysée deputy secretary-general by President Hollande after the 2012 election, Macron was a senior adviser to Hollande. Appointed Economics Minister in 2014, in the second Valls government, he led several business-friendly reforms. He resigned in 2016, to launch his 2017 presidential campaign. A member of the Socialist Party between 2006-09, he ran in the election under the banner of En Marche, a centrist and pro-European political movement he founded in 2016.
Partly due to the Fillon affair, Macron was elected President in May 2017 with 66% of the vote in the second round, defeating Marine Le Pen of the National Front. Aged 39, he became the youngest president in French history. In the 2017 legislative election, his party, renamed La République En Marche! (LREM), secured a majority in the National Assembly. Macron was elected to a second term in the 2022 presidential election, again defeating Le Pen, becoming the first French presidential candidate to win reelection since Jacques Chirac in 2002. Macron's centrist coalition lost its majority in the 2022 legislative election, resulting in a hung parliament and formation of France's first minority government since 1993. In 2024, Macron appointed Gabriel Attal as Prime Minister, after a government crisis. Following overwhelming defeat at the 2024 European Parliament elections, Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for a snap legislative election which resulted in another hung parliament and electoral defeat for his coalition. Two months afterwards, Macron appointed Michel Barnier, a conservative and former chief Brexit negotiator, as Prime Minister. Only three months in, Barnier was toppled by a historic vote of no confidence, prompting Macron to replace him with centrist veteran François Bayrou.
During his presidency, Macron has overseen reforms to labour laws, taxation, and pensions; and pursued a renewable energy transition. Dubbed "president of the rich" by opponents, increasing protests against his reforms, culminating in 2018–2020 with the yellow vests protests and the pension reform strike. In foreign policy, he called for reforms to the European Union (EU) and signed treaties with Italy and Germany. Macron conducted €40 billion in trade and business agreements with China during the China–United States trade war and oversaw a dispute with Australia and the US over the AUKUS security pact. From 2020, he led France's response to the COVID pandemic and vaccination rollout. In 2023, the government of his prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, passed legislation raising the retirement age from 62 to 64; this led to public sector strikes and violent protests. He continued Opération Chammal in the war against the Islamic State and joined in the international condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.