AFP Agency
Paris, France / 03/21/2024 13:05:52
If before politicians tried to project health and good physical fitness by running in parks, now sports like boxing have taken over, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been the last to put on the gloves.
The 46-year-old president was photographed on Wednesday hitting a punching bagwith swollen forearms, in images published on the Instagram account of her official photographer Soazig de La Moissonnière.
Macron “He is a technocrat who dares the populist style, trying to respond to the [presidente ruso] Vladimir Putin on their own turf,” he said. Philippe Moreau-Chevroletexpert in political communication.
The publication of the images comes weeks after Macron hardened his stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine y would not rule out sending troops to support its Ukrainian ally.
Putin He has often tried to project his physical prowess with judo or boxing matches, and also capture it in images, such as his famous photograph riding a horse with a naked torso in 2009.
Photos of Macron as a boxer
The French president is not the first leader to put on the gloves.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the victory of Justin Trudeau against a Conservative MP in a charity match in 2012 could have helped him win the position of Canadian prime minister three years later.
And, during his victorious electoral campaign, the current Argentine president, the ultraliberal Javier Mileyappeared in 2023 at his rallies with boxing gloves and even a chainsaw.
In France, citizens were more accustomed to seeing the former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy in a tracksuit or on a mountain bike, or the leader of the seventies Valéry Giscard d’Estaing playing football or skiing.
“Boxing is quite compatible with the exercise of state power,” he explains. Moreau-Chevroletfor whom, “as is often the case with Macron, it is also a very theatrical image of a hero who conquers suffering.”
“Overcome fear”
Boxing has numerous acolytes in the French political class and Macron’s former prime minister, Edward Philippeis passionate about this sport, which taught him to “overcome fear in terrifying situations.”
Conservative female politicians have also entered the ring in France as Valérie Pécresse y Rachida Datacurrent Minister of Culture.
“Although people may think it is a strange sport for a woman, it projects the image of a fighter,” she declared. Pécresse to the Le Point seminar.
But the images of Macron They did not convince the entire political class. On the social network Sandrine Rousseau He lamented “overused masculinist codes.”
But turning to physical sports has not always sat well with politicians.
The British Boris Johnsonphotographed in the past wearing red boxing gloves, violently knocked down a 10-year-old Japanese rugby fan in 2015 while he was playing during a visit to Tokyo.
But the number of followers among voters means that the leaders do not throw in the towel.
In France, the national boxing federation In April 2023, it surpassed 60,000 members for the first time, more than double that of 2021, a year still marked by the covid pandemic.
Boxing also went from being a sport of the working class, loved in its day by the French Communist Partyto one of the middle class, with gyms in rich cities like Paris.
You can also read
CHZ
2024-03-21 19:21:40
#Macron #criticized #France #publishing #boxing #photos
