The holidays of power… and the power of holidays

Churchill on a picnic, Mussolini in a swimsuit, Macron on a jet ski… Contrary to what one might believe, heads of state also take vacations. But not always with the same objective.

Everyone will agree: it’s been a very political summer. Between the tumultuous American election campaign and the legislative elections in France and the United Kingdom, the news shows no sign of taking a break.

This does not mean that our leaders do not take breaks. On the contrary.

As the story goes History Holidaysa highly entertaining book written by journalists from the magazine THE New Obsgreat personalities never deprived themselves of a stay at the beach, in the mountains or in nature. But these “holidays” were sometimes very strategic…

Diplomacy holidays

Let’s call it combining business with pleasure. Since the 19th century^e century, Napoleon III visited spa towns to cure his liver problems. But his spa stays often turned into “spa diplomacy”, as he took the opportunity to negotiate the future of Europe with his counterparts… not always successfully, it must be said.

This practice seems to have spread. Today, official state visits are regularly accompanied by a short “rest” break in the host leader’s second home. Consider Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron’s recent escapade in the Pyrenees, aimed at “strengthening Franco-Chinese ties” (according to local media), or Camp David in the United States, where “ties are removed but state affairs are still followed,” emphasizes Philippe Reynaert, who led History Holidays.

Few people know that after the Casablanca summit in January 1943, Winston Churchill invited Franklin Delano Roosevelt to spend a few relaxing days in Marrakech. Even less well known is that the two statesmen had a picnic on the road, like two lovebirds on a spree. Surreal, when you think that the world was then on fire and blood. But for Philippe Reynaert, there is no doubt that Churchill had proposed this escapade to Roosevelt in order to “strengthen the ties” between the two countries, for the rest of the Second World War. “He wanted to be sure that there were two of them in command, because he saw very well that England was weaker than the United States.”

Propaganda holidays

A vacation to relax, of course. But why not take advantage of it to promote your image?

In the 1920s, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini posed on the beach in Riccione, a seaside resort on the Adriatic Sea. He was seen swimming among the bathers, waterskiing and strutting around the beach all muscled up, as if he had stepped out of an episode ofBaywatch (Baywatch).

“Unless I’m mistaken, he’s the first head of state to show himself in a swimsuit, to expose his body,” Philippe Reynaert emphasizes. “Holidays are becoming a political instrument that is no longer used for diplomacy with his peers, but for propaganda in front of his people. On the one hand, he’s saying: look, I’m an Italian like you, and at the same time I’m a stronger Italian than you because I’m muscular and I can swim 5 km… It was both proximity and strength.”

Eighty years later, Vladimir Putin would take the concept to its paroxysm.

During his summer holidays between 2008 and 2012, he had himself photographed shirtless on a horse, fishing in a Siberian river or piloting a hang glider. Brute force, wild beauty of Russian landscapes, control of the situation.

These photos, which will go around the world, have become references in terms of virile propaganda. A model that Emmanuel Macron will perhaps draw inspiration from in the summer of 2022, at Fort Brégançon, when he shows off his jet ski in front of the cameras…

Another approach was taken by John F. Kennedy, who had his family photographed extensively during his summers in Cape Cod, in his seaside “chalet”. This almost Hollywood-style staging contributed greatly to his image as the perfect young president, suggests Philippe Raynaert.

“The American Constitution specifies that the goal of the country is the pursuit of happiness. In this sense, it is always necessary to show that an American president is happy, that he has built a family happiness, that he is a faithful husband… even if we know today that Kennedy had two girls a day. He was less trying to show strength than happiness, health and youth.”

This exercise does not succeed for everyone, however. In the 1960s and 1970s, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, showed off his family water skiing on the Caspian Sea, or downhill skiing on the slopes of St. Moritz.

These images of success are all signs sent to his Western allies, whom he wants to convince of his modernity. Alas, these propaganda holidays will “come back to haunt him like a boomerang”, Philippe Reynaert emphasizes. For the ayatollahs, these “glamorous” images prove that the sovereign leads a dissolute, even satanic life. In their own way, they will fan the flames of the revolution in 1979…

Relaxing holidays

And a normal vacation, just to get away from it all, is that possible? Fortunately, yes, although… A political figure on vacation is often out of town and logically far from his “palace” and his army. This absence can play tricks on him. It was during his vacation in the summer of 1964 in Pitsunda that Khrushchev was deposed by a coup by Brezhnev.

And it was while he was retreating with his family to his dacha that Gorbachev was the victim of an attempted putsch. “Summer is a season when history can be made without being on vacation,” Philippe Reynaert so aptly notes. It’s hard to prove him wrong: the First World War broke out in August and the Second on 1^er september…