On April 24, 2022, Emmanuel Macron won a second time after 2017: he was again President of the Republic with 58.5% of the vote, beating Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party. If the joy is immense for the camp of the Head of State, the criticisms of the opponents were not long after the announcement of the results. Paris Match looked back on the moments that followed the moment of the official declaration on the Champ-de-Mars in Paris, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
“I find it indecent to hear representatives of candidates who have been defeated three times explain to us that Emmanuel Macron, elected for the second time, would have lost. It’s lunar. We’re not going to apologize for winning!“, annoys with the magazine Stéphane Séjourné, boss of the LREM MEPs, very close to the Head of State and companion of the government spokesman Gabriel Attal.
Re-elected president, Emmanuel Macron knows that the context is different from that of 2017. France is experiencing several crises: that of Covid-19, purchasing power or the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. He then had to manage the country and lead his campaign at the same time. After making his speech, he did not stay long to celebrate with his campaign staff. Paris Match precise : “Emmanuel Macron himself chose to retreat to La Lanterne, the royal hunting lodge that has become the private residence of the Presidents of the Republic. What a funny idea to celebrate this victory!“In 2017, he celebrated the event with great fanfare on the esplanade of the Louvre.
If some make the link between the very solitary or even Jupiterian power that he exercises, his wife and lifelong ally Brigitte Macron gives her explanations, reported by the magazine: “[elle] wanted him to rest during this week of transition. They found, Sunday evening, part of their family in this place where they took their habits every weekend” Already in 2017, he was thinking of preparing his investiture there: “but François Hollande had not yet moved his belongings, according to someone close to the couple.“The French leader therefore decided to take a break at Versailles to prepare for the rest of his “hundred days” and the legislative elections of June 12 and 19. And rest, he really needed it, he who has already been heckled on the Cergy market for a visit that he assured from A to Z despite the tensions.
Two days later, Emmanuel Macron took care to congratulate his campaign teams with a solemn speech. A moment immortalized in a photo by the essential Soazig de la Moissonnière and reported by the political journalist in charge of the Elysée Palace for CNews, Loïc Signor.