Emmanuel Macron, Current President of France
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (French: [emanɥɛl ʒɑ̃ miʃɛl fʁedeʁik makʁɔ̃]; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has been serving as the president of France since 14 May 2017.
Born in Amiens, Macron studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, later completing a master's degree in public affairs at Sciences Po and graduating from the École nationale d'administration in 2004. He worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances and later became an investment banker at Rothschild & Co.
Macron was appointed a deputy secretary general by President François Hollande shortly after his election in May 2012, making Macron one of Hollande's senior advisers. He was later appointed to the French cabinet as Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in August 2014 by prime minister Manuel Valls. In this role, Macron championed a number of business-friendly reforms. He resigned from the cabinet in August 2016, launching a campaign for the 2017 French presidential election. Although Macron had been a member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, he ran in the election under the banner of La République En Marche!, a centrist and pro-European political movement he founded in April 2016.
Partly thanks to the Fillon affair, Macron topped the ballot in the first round of voting, and was elected President of France on 7 May 2017 with 66.1% of the vote in the second round, defeating Marine Le Pen. At the age of 39, Macron became the youngest president in French history. He appointed Édouard Philippe as prime minister, and in the 2017 French legislative election a month later Macron's party, renamed La République En Marche (LREM), secured a majority in the National Assembly. During his presidency, Macron has overseen several reforms to labour laws and taxation. Opposition to his reforms, particularly a proposed fuel tax, culminated in the 2018 yellow vests protests and other protests. In 2020, he appointed Jean Castex as prime minister following Philippe's resignation. From 2020, he has led France's ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination rollout.