Some French elected officials now display their musculature to woo voters and physically compare with rivals, breaking from the democratic tradition focused on the mind. Emmanuel Macron leads this trend with boxing and running photos. Experts see it as a refuge amid global uncertainties.
Emmanuel Macron has multiplied images of his muscular body since his election. In March, a photo on the Instagram account of the Élysée photographer shows him practicing boxing, biceps tense, hair bristling, and veins bulging. This summer, he appears running at the foot of the Rockies before the G7, then holding his shoulder pensively in the return plane, focusing on his right biceps.
François Hourmant, professor at the University of Angers and author of Power and Beauty: The Taboo of the Physical in Politics (PUF, 2021), explains: “Between 2017 and 2025, the president sought to shift from the thin body associated with énarques, the bureaucratic elites of the Republic, to a muscular body, symbol of hegemonic masculinity.”
This trend is not isolated. Jordan Bardella, the young heir of the Rassemblement National, admits to having gained a suit size from sports. Louis Sarkozy, Nicolas Sarkozy's ambitious son with Trumpist tones, displays himself bare-chested in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu video on the Figaro website. Communist senator Ian Brossat shares his Fitness Park gym sessions with the press.
Guillaume Vallet, professor at the University of Grenoble-Alpes and author of The Making of Muscle (L’Echappée, 2022), analyzes: “Behind the attraction to muscle, there is this simplistic idea that one will win a debate with a slap or a punch rather than with one's mind, which is the French tradition since the Enlightenment.”
These stagings, once reserved for authoritarian leaders, are entering democracies. Some see Macron's boxing photo as a response to Vladimir Putin, published when he was targeted by Russian trolls after suggesting sending Western troops to Ukraine. Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev called him a “zoological coward” before Macron's trip to Kyiv.
Muscle acts as a safe haven amid contemporary uncertainties, in a “pastoral of sweat.”