Emmanuel Macron has shown a penchant for flexing his muscles. In March, the French people discovered photos of their president boxing, with his biceps taut, hair bristling and veins bulging, published on the Instagram account of the Elysée's official photographer. Over the summer, the same account showed him running at the foot of the Rocky Mountains ahead of the G7 summit, and then deep in thought on the plane home, with the president clutching his shoulder – a photo focused on his bulging right bicep.
Between 2017 and 2025, Macron has sought to shift his image "from the thin body associated with graduates of the National School of Administration, the bureaucratic elites of the Republic, to a muscular body, a symbol of hegemonic masculinity," said François Hourmant, professor at the University of Angers and author of Pouvoir et Beauté. Le Tabou du Physique en Politique ("Power and Beauty: The Taboo of Physique in Politics").
He has not been the only figure with such an ambition: Jordan Bardella, the young heir apparent of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, admitted that he had to change his suit size after working out a lot; Louis Sarkozy, the ambitious son of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has adopted a Trump-style tone, appeared shirtless in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu video on the website of the newspaper Le Figaro; and Communist Senator Ian Brossat shared photos of his workouts at a Fitness Park gym with the media.
Muscles have come to serve as a form of safe haven in the face of contemporary uncertainty. "Behind the appeal of muscles lies the simplistic idea that one can win a debate with a slap or a punch, rather than with one's mind, which has nevertheless been the French tradition since the Enlightenment," said Guillaume Vallet, professor at the Grenoble-Alpes University and author of La Fabrique du Muscle ("The Factory of Muscle").
A 'pastoral of sweat'
Scenes that were once the preserve of authoritarian leaders have now pushed their way into our democracies. "Some saw the timing of the photo of Emmanuel Macron boxing as a response to Vladimir Putin," said Hourmant. The photo was published at a time when Macron had become the target of Russian trolls, after having suggested the possibility of deploying Western troops to Ukraine. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev even called him a "zoological coward" ahead of the French president's trip to Kyiv.
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