Who is Emmanuel Macron?
Emmanuel Macron was born in Amiens in 1977. He studied at Sciences Po and the ENA civil service school, worked as an inspector of finances and as an investment banker, and served as President Francois Hollande's deputy chief of staff and then as economy minister from 2014 to 2016. He founded the En Marche movement in 2016 and won the presidency in 2017 at 39, and was re-elected against Marine Le Pen in 2022. After his camp lost ground in the June 2024 European elections he dissolved the National Assembly, producing a parliament without a majority. Sebastien Lecornu became his prime minister in September 2025 and was reappointed in October 2025 after briefly resigning. His second term ends in May 2027 and he cannot seek a third consecutive term.
Previously: Founder of En Marche, now Renaissance (2016) · Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs (2014-2016) · Deputy Secretary-General of the Elysee Palace (2012-2014)
Documented positions
- Signed decrees in 2017 that loosened French labour law, including limits on dismissal awards and more company-level bargaining.Source: hrreporter.com
- Replaced the wealth tax with a narrower tax on real estate assets, a move left-wing critics said made him a president of the rich.Source: connexionfrance.com
- Raised the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 in 2023, using Article 49.3 to pass the bill without a final Assembly vote.Source: cnbc.com
- Pushed to write the freedom to have an abortion into the French constitution, approved by parliament 780 to 72 in March 2024.Source: opb.org
- Announced plans in 2022 to build six new nuclear reactors and study eight more.Source: world-nuclear-news.org
- Referred the 2024 immigration law to the Constitutional Council, which struck out more than a third of its articles, including limits on benefits and family reunification.Source: aljazeera.com
- In September 2025 he announced that 26 countries had committed to a reassurance force for Ukraine once the war ends.Source: aljazeera.com
- Has proposed reorganising the financing of Islam and the training of imams in France, framed as protecting national cohesion and secularism.Source: bridge.georgetown.edu
Record
Supporters credit Macron with labour market reform, a revival of nuclear power, the constitutional protection of abortion and a leading role in European support for Ukraine. Critics point to the pension reform passed without a final vote, the yellow vest protests of 2018 and 2019, the end of the wealth tax and the political deadlock that followed the 2024 dissolution, with several prime ministers in quick succession.
On 17 October 2026 nationwide protests over living costs and school conditions were followed by rioting and looting in several cities, with at least 2,400 arrests. Macron refused the resignation of Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and asked him for full transparency on planning and intelligence failures, while Prime Minister Lecornu ordered localised curfews.