We will just give his nickname, @leRleAir, declension of the initial of his first name, R. Since September 16, the day he posted a photo of Jean Castex in the metro, social networks have been wondering who this stranger is who has barely 2,000 Twitter followers and who triggers such a buz 16,000 likes, but above all two million views. Jean Castex, on his jump seat, backpack at his feet, staring into space.
At the time, he himself came off the radar screens, we are exactly four months after his release from Matignon on May 16. As often, the photo will be abundantly diverted: we find the Castex silhouette sitting on a fairground carousel, or even on the knees of Valérie Pécresse, with Bernard-Henri Lévy or even Bernie Sanders in the United States.
The story of this photo could not be more banal. @LeRleAir takes the metro on a Friday morning at the Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau station. The post is dated September 16 at 9:29 a.m. The photo is taken 6 minutes earlier, at 9:23. It is clearly geolocated on line 1 of the metro just after the Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau station. “I took my subway like every morning to go to work, he indicates. Then I saw a familiar face, I said hello to him, then I realized that I only knew him from TV. I took a photo and then he got off at the station; I posted the photo like that, without thinking that it was going to make such a shambles…”
Courage @JeanCASTEX .. It’s Friday ! pic.twitter.com/GSnmTs1yq9
— The R (@leRleAir) September 16, 2022
Oddly, the photo is viewed 2 million times, but its subscriber count does not panic. The Twitter count gives him five new ones in connection with this tweet. On the other hand, it has since been awash in comments, 90% positive. This does not prevent heated debates launched by some… “But how do you want politicians to take the metro, if each time, we make fun of them, we take their picture?he smiles. There are people who said that I worked for the com of Jean Castex! I was delighted to be Castex’s communications advisor for a week: it’s my job, so why not?”
This story has obviously given him ideas and he is now wondering if he is not going to offer his services to the new boss of the RATP. In any case, he will not be able to assert the score of his tweet of Tuesday October 18 in the evening on the appointment of Jean Castex at the RATP, quite funny: “Thanks WHO ?”, he then posts mischievously. Result: seven likes! How to explain it? Told him that many other tweeters had done it before him.
You realize ? I took a picture of @JeanCASTEX in the metro which toured France and a month later he was appointed CEO of the @RATPgroup ! Coincidence? I don’t think so.
— The R (@leRleAir) October 18, 2022
What do we know about this intruder? That he is 30 years old. His Tweeter profile evokes a passage to the Ministry of Ecology and the National Assembly, and this is the case. After studying law, he sought a work-study program for a master’s degree in public affairs at Paris Dauphine and landed an internship at the ministry, at the time of Ségolène Royal, with an adviser. We are then in 2015/2016. He then landed a CDI in the Assembly for a year with an opposition deputy, then disappeared into the private sector, where he now does lobbying, public affairs, international affairs.
On Twitter, it is absolutely not customary for bangs and other buzz. Besides a few valves, it shines above all by its sobriety. In life, however, he has the reflex to discreetly take a lot of photos. His friends call him the paparazzi. One day he posted a photo of Monica Bellucci taken in a luxury boutique. But he is cautious: last week, he kept to himself that of a big boss. Following the Castex buzz, he even hid his first name and photo “so as not to embarrass his employers”, he explains. For all these reasons, we have chosen to preserve his anonymity.