France is discussing a photo. It shows President Macron and his wife last Sunday morning, the day of the early elections for the Assemblée nationale, which he personally called for, walking through the northern French seaside resort of Touquet in jeans and a leather jacket, baseball cap, sneakers and sunglasses. Some of the passers-by don’t even seem to recognize him in his outfit and are more astonished than impressed. The photos have been discussed for days like a political scandal.
„So rock, so cool“?
The outfit was “perturbante en plein chaos politique”, complained the magazine “Closer”, disturbing in the political chaos; according to “Parisien”, the relaxed look “does not fit at all with the catastrophe that is currently affecting his political family”; the presenter Laurent Bazin also declared the appearance, “so cool, so rock”, a “catastrophe at a time when Macron has provoked new elections that could drive the country into the arms of the Rassemblement National”. What else should the president wear on a Sunday morning, one might object – but Macron is at a point where he can no longer please anyone. He had hoped that in new elections his party would at least come in second place ahead of the fractured left and that in run-off elections he would force the French to vote for him in order to prevent a far-right leadership. Now the left has surprisingly joined forces and relegated Macron’s alliance to third place in the first round of voting. So he will probably have to govern with a left-wing or a right-wing extremist prime minister.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
But what is it about the “tenue décontractée” (AFP) that is making commentators so upset – which can mean “relaxed” but can also literally mean “released from all contracts”, which may already be a key to understanding the excitement. Nathalie Saint-Cricq, television journalist for “Télématin”, also finds Macron’s “Tom Cruise look” impossible and says it is part of the president’s conscious image policy. But what does this outfit represent? Firstly, it is reminiscent of a bomber pilot and thus fits in with Macron’s self-portrayal as a warrior; only recently he posed for official photos as a boxer with tense biceps. The Touquet look could also be interpreted as an image of commitment. American presidents wear such things when they give interviews on aircraft carriers.
Under Chirac’s trench coat fit a people
Unfortunately, Macron’s look is not seen as a declaration of war on the far-right, but as an expression of the aloofness of an elite alienated from the people. While the far-right challenger Jordan Bardella appears in office suits, emphasizes his origins from the banlieue and conceals his wealthy father, Macron, the former investment banker, walks through Touquet with his wife – the press emphasizes that she is wearing an expensive denim jacket from Vuitton – in the look of a wealthy private citizen who has already taken a leave of absence from his country’s problems. The logo on his cap bears the abbreviation of the presidential personal protection unit GSPR. Is he protecting himself here now?
Macron’s look was reminiscent of Sarkozy, a critic said on television, the former president who was considered egomaniac and addicted to luxury after his election victory when he first went on a luxury vacation on the yacht of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who later became the sponsor of the right-wing radical Éric Zemmour. The fashion of his predecessor Jacques Chirac was also a statement and part of political iconography: like a Madonna wearing a protective cloak, the whole nation seemed to fit under his wide trench coats.
Macron’s form-fitting jackets are only suitable for him. The Touquet look is seen as frivolous. In a crisis situation, the president must appear appropriately serious and not in a decorative, militarized look that the rich like to wear when they go golfing. According to “Femme Actuelle”, Macron wears leather jackets from “Redskins”, a brand whose name already combines the extreme right and the left. They would be a fashionable echo of the extremes that Macron could now have to deal with.
2024-07-05 12:04:49
