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Originally appeared at Vzglyad; Appeared in Bulgarian at Memoriabg, translated by Valentina Tzoneva exclusively for SouthFront

Emmanuel Macron, the photogenic 39-years-old financier with an amazing career became the leader of the presidential race in France after Francois Fillon and Marine Le Pen faced a wave of discredits. According to opinion polls, he will reach the second round with Marine Le Pen, where he will win 66 percent of the votes.

Emmanuel Macron can be called the most unusual candidate for president of France. He has no real political experience. He has not been elected anywhere before. He is not a member of any of the leading parties and the three years (2006 to 2009) in socialist ranks can be considered a formality; Macron joined them “officially” but did not pay dues and did not attended party events.

By profession, Macron is an investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions and was successful in his career. He graduated from the National School of Administration, a leading university for the French elite. He worked for several years as an inspector at the Ministry of Economy. Then in 2007, a crucial year in his career, the promising 29-year-old economist was spotted and invited by Jacques Attali in his Commission for stimulating economic growth.

Jacques Attali is a very interesting person. Formally, he is a philosopher-globalist, a writer of color utopias of how all nations and states will disappear from the face of the earth during bloody conflicts, and the survivors of humanity will unite under the banner of democracy and under the control of a World Government. Moreover, for many years Attali was well received at the Elysee Palace and is one of the most influential advisers of generations of French presidents, from François Mitterrand to Francois Hollande. Local media, calling him “the true president of France” is hardly exaggerating.

It is Jacques Attali who created the link between the financial capital and the elite of the ruling Socialist Party, which he supports. He is exceptional in his ability to skillfully wrap the predatory plans of the bankers in beautiful leftist slogans.

In 2008, the Attali commission presented to President Nicolas Sarkozy “300 proposals to change France” – a plan for modernization of the economy meant to save it from the long years of stagnation. The main idea can be formulated as follows: to avoid losing its competitiveness in the global market, the country must drastically reduce the cost of labor. One way for this to happen is to increase immigration to France; low-paid recent immigrants, who will not be able to get organized in trade unions, will displace the local workers from manufacturing and services. Also, the plan is impressive with the proposal to drastically reduce government spending on health, education and pension provision. Sarkozy did not dare to accept this radical plan.

But let’s go back to Macron. During his stay at the Commission, he managed to win the sympathy of Attali, who soon introduced him to his friend, Francois Enron. Enron, in turn, is the best friend and main partner of David de Rothschild and in 2008 Macron was hired by the Rothschild’s & Co Banque where he made quick career and in four years only he grew from analyst to partner. His commissions exceed more than one million euros per year but much more valuable are the new connections in the business world and the reputation of “financial Mozart.”

The biggest deal for Macron in the bank of Rothschild is his involvement in the purchase of Nestle subsidiary for baby food of the US drug maker Pfizer’s (for $ 11.85 billion, editor’s note). At that time he met for the first time Matthew Pigasse, director of the French branch of the Lazard Brothers bank, who wanted to make the same purchase for his client, Danone, but failed. So Macron found his greatest enemy in the face of Matthew Pigasse.

In 2010, Pigasse who is a leftist banker and a friend and patron of the French socialists, planned to become an economic adviser to Francois Hollande but the ubiquitous Jacques Attali recommended Emmanuel Macron to Hollande. For several years Macron, perfectly fluent in English and German, facilitated between the top-socialist of France and the foreign financial circles. As the Guardian noted maliciously, while Hollande was shouting at rallies “My main enemy is the financial capital!” the banking officer of Rothschild, Macron, was flying to London City to assure bankers that under President Hollande everything would remain as usual.

In 2012, Hollande became president and Macron left the bank of Rothschild and was appointed deputy secretary general of the Elysee Palace. In 2014, in his position of “young reformer”, he headed the Ministry of Economy and Industry (taking the place of longtime friend and business partner of Pigasse, Arnaud Montebourg). Hollande gives him carte blanche for activities related to the modernization of the economy and Macron presents a bill with more than 300 sections, providing for the liberalization of the French market. Experts say that the nature of the law of Macron embodies all the ideas of the Attali commission. In it, embedded and encouraged are the immigration, facilities are provided for the release of employees, increased is the competition within the various professions, indirectly increased is the working day at the expense of Sundays and night shifts.

The working people in France resolutely did not approve this bill. The discussion was accompanied by massive protests. There was no chance to pass the law in parliament. Hollande then exercised his right to adopt certain bills without the approval of parliament and in August 2015 approved the “Law of Macron”. Interestingly, before becoming president, Hollande sharply criticized this presidential law and even called it “fascists”.

In 2016, when the rating of Hollande was embarrassingly low something unusual started to happen around Emmanuel Macron. Thus, out of nowhere a movement, “Youth for Macron” arose. It is difficult to even imagine the youth uniting suddenly around unpopular minister of economy in a country with depressive economy. However, several thousand people turned out to participate in the new movement.

Macron founded his own party with the vague name “Forward!” (En marche!) The rallies began to gather huge crowds and this at a time when the socialists gathered with great effort several hundred people at their events. Macron’s program was also unclear. Condemning the terrorist attacks, he has no plans to close borders or restrict immigration; promising to increase the country’s military spending he does not distance it from NATO. In fact, Macron remains the same globalist, an exemplary pupil of Jacques Attali, focusing on the slogans of European unity. He criticized both the left and right, trying to distract voters who traditionally vote for the Socialists, and also to attract those for whom the National Front of Marine Le Pen is too radical.

With his sudden appearance in politics Macron got off at an incredible rate. Journalists literally carry him in their arms. Women’s magazines call him a new sex symbol and a dream for any French woman. Influential newspapers highlight the advantages of his centrist position. Sociologists predict his victory. And no one reveals something serious to discredit him. In January, when some criticism undermined the chances of his main competitors, Marine Le Pen and Francois Fillon, Macron stayed out of any scandals.

Paradoxically – and thus potentially “lethal” for a French politician – may seem the private life of Macron but the media painted a purely romantic story out of it. The point is that the wife of the favorite in the presidential race (Brigitte Trogneux, editor’s note.) is 24 years older than him. In 2007, on his wedding day he was 29 and she was 53 years old. Macron told reporters that he fell in love with his future wife when he was 15 years old, when she taught French in his school. Meanwhile, he graduated from high school and university, travelled the world, built a career, but during all these 14 years he is faithful to his first love.

Despite its implausibility, the story appeals to journalists. Pictures of Macron, walking hand in hand with his wife, or Macron with a bottle of baby food, feeding her grandchildren were published by all the newspapers in the country. Fashion magazines proclaimed his wife for “an icon of style”. In terms of political technologies this was a good move: France is aging, and more ladies in retirement are among voters. For them now there is an abundance of movies in which young handsome men fall in love with an old lady. The family idyll of Macron is designed for them and projected on them. It is also true that the tabloids periodically run rumors that Macron’s lover is the President of Radio France, Matthew Galle, but there is no evidence.

Overall, the career of the young politician goes so successfully and the media support him so strongly that it is impossible not to become suspicious of any other influence. Once Macron announced that he enters the presidential race, the French gave him the nickname “the candidate of Rothschild.” There is no conspiracy in this: the French branch of the Rothschild family, which controls assets in the tens of billions of euros, quite naturally seeks to have its man at the Elysee Palace.

The famous family kept friendly and business relations with generations of French politicians, from Charles de Gaulle to Georges Pompidou, from Edouard Balladur to Nicolas Sarkozy. Former secretary general of the Elysee Palace, Francois Peron, as well as the Director of the Cabinet of Ministers under Prime Minister Beregovoy, Nikolas Basire have worked directly for Rothschild’s bank. Historians believe that the large-scale privatization in the mid-90s was held by Prime Minister Balladur not without the interference of Rothschild.

The main competitor in the political struggle for Rothschild appears to be the Lazard Brothers’ Bank, whose French branch is led by the biggest enemy of Marcon, Matthew Pigasse. In the Lazard Bank he plays the same role as Jacques Attali played in the bank of Rothschild. Pigasse loves punk rock and reality shows, playing guitar; he buys influential newspapers, quotes interviews with leftist philosophers and is an active companion of leftist politicians. Like the Rothschilds, Lazard successfully nurtured Socialists in 2007. Matthew Pigasse sponsored the presidential campaign of Segolene Royal while supporting Arnaud Montebourg. After his friend was forced to withdraw from the elections because of the extremely low popularity Pigasse supported Benoit Hamon. The latter promised the French unconditional basic income of 750 euros, but bankers know what is ‘left’ rhetoric in the campaign.

The media of the leftists blames Pigasse for splitting the Socialists. In fact, the banker simply cleared the way for his protégés in the party and at the same time paid back his revenge to Francois Hollande for he did not introduce him at the Elysee Palace. The latest blow on the lowest rating of Hollande is a book, compiled by journalists from Le Monde: “The president should not say this …” where cleverly selected quotations denounce the president as a hypocrite, a racist and a liar. Shortly after the publication Hollande went on television and gave up a nomination for a new term. Most of the shares of Le Monde are owned by Pigasse.

In addition to Le Monde, the French director of Lazard Bank controls several other influential media outlets. The only threat to Macron can come from them. If we see a fabrication aiming to discredit him, the first to publish it will be Matthew Pigasse.

Emmanuel Macron seems a finished product of political technologies in the presidential race. His image has been thoughtfully created: his looks, the poignant love story and the politically correct program. But in this lies its weakness – French voters may feel the artificial image of the candidate, and the lack of independence as leader of the nation. The problem is not in bankers involved in politics, in general it happens all the time; but a strong president will be able to impose his agenda on the most influential sponsors. However, the pretty face of Macron bears no resemblance to such president. This is a homunculus grown by all the rules for managing public opinion.

Today the sociologists unanimously predict a victory for Macron in the presidential elections. By the way, the sociologists in the US elections likewise unanimously promised victory for Hillary Clinton. Regardless of what the fate of Macron will be, he remains a model of how the agreement between the financial capital and the leftist parties in Europe work as well as the fact that the presidents of France change regularly, but the people who propel them to the Elysee Palace remain the same.

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