Emmanuel Macron Is Porous and Making Calls
The French president’s official photographer catches him coiffed and in action
Emmanuel Macron, the President of the French République, is rolling calls, holding pens, clenching his right hand, furrowing his brow, and staring at screens. He is looking casual, but focused. He is sporting a black hoodie that happens to bear the logo of Air Parachute Commando No. 10, the Direct Action and Counter Terrorism unit of France’s Air Force Special Forces Brigade. He is pacing around the “salon doré,” the gilded presidential office of the French Élysée, and guess what, mes amis — he is getting a little goofy.
Perhaps you’ve seen these photos. They were posted on Instagram early this morning by Macron’s official photographer Soazig de la Moissonière, just weeks after she captured him drinking an espresso and days after she got one great shot of the popped collar of his long-sleeved polo. The final one in the series kind of looks like this recent photo of Joaquin Phoenix on set as Napoleon Bonaparte in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Napoleon.
According to de la Moissonière’s caption, Macron is “making international calls,” much like he was three weeks ago in another stunning carousel. These calls might have something to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which Macron has been very photogenically involved, giving him a massive bump in the polls that The Guardian is calling a “Falklands effect” — a reference to Margaret Thatcher’s miraculous recovery in public support and subsequent re-election following the 10-week imperial conflict between the U.K. and Argentina in 1982 over territories in the South Atlantic, which Jorge Luis Borges once called “a fight between two bald men over a comb.” I’ll tell you one thing: no one is bald here, definitely not Macron. His cheveux could maybe use a comb, as he has clearly been hard at work — so hard at work that no one should make fun of his derrière in these pants. That would be gauche.
