It is the second time they face each other in the race for the Elysée. Here is a brief profile of the two challengers in the ballot in France.
EMMANUEL MACRON. Born on 21 December 1977 in Amiens, he was the 8th President of the Republic. He studied philosophy before joining the prestigious ENA school of administration.
His career sees him at a very young age at the General Inspection of Finance, then a business banker at Rothschild’s. In politics he approaches the Citizens’ Movement of Jean-Pierre Chévenement, a left-wing sovereignist, then the socialists of Michel Rocard, but the turning point is in 2012 when he is appointed Deputy Secretary General to the Presidency of the Republic under François Hollande.
The latter appoints him Minister of Economy in place of Arnaud Montebourg in August 2014. He immediately creates controversy by passing the law that regulates Sunday work, then creates his own movement, “En Marche!”, With the intention of introducing himself at the Elysée in 2017. For this reason he leaves the government at the end of summer 2016, then refusing to participate in the primaries of the left. His book “Révolution” becomes a success and in the presidential elections he beats the field by coming in the lead in the first round with 24.01% of the votes. He knocks out his opponent Marine Le Pen in the debate on live TV and then in the polls, where he is elected president with 66.10% of the votes. Despite reforms and despite a wave of novelty and prestige that he confers on France, his mandate is studded with crises, from the protest of the yellow vests to that against the pension reform, which he then suspends due to the pandemic. The reform itself tops the re-election program in 2022. He is married to Brigitte, his high school teacher and 24 years his senior.
*MARINE LE PEN. Real name is Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen.
Born in Neully-sur-Seine, a residential suburb of Paris, on 5 August 1968, she is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the Front National, the main far-right group in France. She has been a member of her father’s party since the age of 18, in 1998 she obtained her first political mandate as regional councilor of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Within the party, the first positive electoral results accredit her as a possible future leader and she begins to create groups and internal organizations that will constitute the future of the “cleared” movement. Her first appearances on TV build her new character on the far right and in 2004 she was elected MEP. Her father’s failure in the 2007 presidential elections is offset by her excellent score. She begins to build “his of hers” party of hers, less rigid and more attentive to the popular classes. She excludes one by one the lieutenants of her father, until she succeeds her parent in 2011 as president of the Front National. A further “anti-liberal” turn follows and in the 2012 presidential elections he gets 17.90%, improving his father’s exploit in 2002. He begins to take root on the ground, the victories in local elections and – in parallel – the family war with the father, marginalized by the party and disowned for his more extreme positions.
In 2015, Jean-Marie Le Pen was expelled from the party he founded. In 2017 Marine arrives at the presidential ballot but then stumbles head to head on TV against the young candidate Emmanuel Macron. In the 2022 presidential elections, when she seemed to have to be ousted by the far-right competitor, Eric Zemmour, she still manages to win the ballot, and always against Macron. She has three children with her first husband Franck Chauffroy, from whom she divorced in 2000 to remarry 2 years later with Eric Iorio. New divorce in 2006.
Since 2009 paired with the general secretary of the Front National, Louis Aliot, from whom he separated in September 2019.
Source: Ansa
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