Emmanuel Macron and the battle of the media tycoons

By Sandrine Cassini and Olivier Faye

Posted today at 5:30 p.m., updated at 7:31 p.m.

From top to bottom, the boss of Free, Xavier Niel, Emmanuel Macron and Bernard Arnault, CEO of the LVMH group.

Three bell-ringers from Lann-Bihoué, wearing the red pompom bachi of the French Navy, lead the way to the coffin. Bombardes and bagpipes resonate under the vault of the Sainte-Clotilde basilica, in the heart of the 7e district of Paris. The building is full despite the Covid-19 epidemic. It is not a head of state that is buried on January 8, nor a minister, a high-ranking soldier or a captain of industry. A journalist, simply.

But not just any: Olivier Royant, editorial director of Paris Match, died at 58. Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, made the trip: the man was considered a “Sympathizer”, according to the expression of a macronist. In August 2020, the doors of Fort Brégançon (Var) had been opened to him to collect the “confidences” of the presidential couple. In a letterhead statement from the Elysee, the Macrons welcomed “The career of a journalist of great finesse, whose eye and pen knew how to embrace contemporary issues, and who will be missed by the French press, as much as they will miss in a friendly capacity”.

The Sarkozy couple took their place at their side, in the front row, just in front of the magazine’s owner, Arnaud Lagardère. Alain and Isabelle Juppé are there, too, as are the mayor of the borough, Rachida Dati, the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, or even Alain Minc, the eternal eminence grise of the big bosses and the presidents of the Republic. Even Pope Francis delivered a message through Vatican journalist Caroline Pigozzi. For more than seventy years, Match is the benevolent mirror of ambitions, whether political, economic or cultural.

Three bosses and a president

Emmanuel Macron knows better than anyone “The weight of words and the shock of photos”. The weekly contributed to his political rise, with flattering headlines on the arm of his wife, which the boss of the Bestimage agency, Mimi Marchand, knows how to sell in all seasons. One day at the beach, another in a Perfecto… During his years at the Rothschild bank, the enarque was able to measure the influence of the press when it came time to conclude a “deal”.

The same is true in politics, where the perception of facts, we consider in those around him, sometimes counts more than their reality. During the 2017 presidential campaign, his opponents denounced the “media bubble” that had formed around the candidate, qualified by the press, as desired, as “Macron rocket”, of “Meteor”, or from “Blaster”. “There was a commercial attractiveness around Macron and macronism, it was the event of the presidential election, the new character”, recognizes a loved one.

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