This is not the poster for Tom Cruise's next film but the cover of the August 13 edition of Paris Match. Launched at full speed on his jet-ski, muscles bulging under his life jacket, the President of the Republic seems to be looking at the reader of the LVMH group's weekly magazine through his large sunglasses. "Emmanuel Macron. Last summer in charge", headlines the newspaper, promising exclusive photos of the presidential vacation at Fort Brégançon (Var), residence of heads of state during the summer break.
Inside, Paris Match publishes other photos of Emmanuel Macron, who we see in turn aboard an inflatable boat with his bodyguards, at the beach or trying surf foiling, a nautical discipline. This report is far from being a first, similar photos have been published in previous years by the same magazine or other celebrity press titles.
"It is not a Macronist invention to make the front page of 'Paris-Match'. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had modernized the exercise of the peopolization of political life, before it even became a tool of government under Nicolas Sarkozy", recalls Florian Silnicki, communications expert and founder of the La French Com agency.
“I find this obscene”
The weekly's photos immediately led to a torrent of reactions, misappropriation on social networks and criticism from the opposition. In a long message on "Emmanuel Macron having authorized this publication, he is accountable for it. This means that he sees no problem in appropriating the codes of 'petro-masculinity'. And no problem with this photo which is a gigantic middle finger to ecology, he knows it", denounces the presidential candidate.
"During the heatwave, when France is burning, when some of the French were unable to go on vacation, the president is having fun on a jet-ski in Brégançon. Is that the message? It's very successful!" lamented Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, on Antoine Léaument.
“I don’t know who this is supposed to speak to outside of a political-media microcosm which must concern at best 700 people in a country of almost 70 million inhabitants.”
Antoine Léaument, deputy of La France insoumise
at franceinfo
In the Macronist camp, reactions are divided. “Jet-skiing really isn’t great,” sighs a figure from the presidential party. When others try to defend the president. "I understand that the opposition is going towards this kind of criticism, but that's all they have to eat this summer. Unlike his predecessors, Emmanuel Macron had a sober presidency on this level, his private life did not interfere with his function, unlike Sarkozy and Hollande", argues a government advisor. According to him, making the front page of Paris Match also allows the Head of State, while he is unable to represent himself, to (re)position himself at the center of the political game.
“It shows that Emmanuel Macron still exists and that he remains essential on the political scene with this type of attacks.”
A government advisor
at franceinfo
“We are establishing the president as the central character of the comments”, adds Florian Silnicki, who evokes with these photos “a staging [of the private life of Emmanuel Macron], as Jordan Bardella had done recently”.
The president of the National Rally also caused a lot of ink to flow by posing on the arm of his partner, Maria Carolina de Bourbon des Deux-Siciles, last April in Paris Match. “Immediately, it presidentializes,” judged political scientist Virginie Martin to franceinfo. “He is entering the big leagues. And this also contributes to a trivialization and normalization of the National Rally,” she continued. A communications operation and not a real paparazzi, as several sources assured France Télévisions. “No one is fooled, these are not stolen photos, it is to purge the subject, it comes out and we no longer talk about it, it allows us to evacuate and move on to something else,” confided an executive from the far-right party.
“Summer issues are selling well”
But, on the side of Emmanuel Macron's entourage, we refute any agreement between the presidency and the weekly for the photo shoot: "It is not a question of a communications strategy on our part, but of a paparazzi and the editorial choice of a newspaper." A paid choice at the kiosks? "Since the start of the first five-year term, 'Paris Match' has been doing this kind of photos, it's because it sells. So there is an interest from the French, they would have stopped otherwise", believes a Macronist executive. “Politics really depends on the period but the summer issues sell well. The last one with Nicolas Sarkozy did well,” confirms a source at Paris Match. The former president appeared there hand in hand with his wife Carla Bruni, with this title: “The triumph of love.”
The commercial success of this type of publication should nevertheless "not be confused with the approval of voters", warns Florian Silnicki. “Poopolization creates a kind of familiarity, notoriety but not legitimacy,” he argues.
“You enter the homes of the French during the summer break by reaching an audience that is not that of the morning radio shows, but you create neither confidence nor legitimacy in political action.”
Florian Silnicki, communications expert
at franceinfo
The leader of the Place publique movement, Raphaël Glucksmann, who must reveal his presidential ambitions at the start of the school year, also appears on the cover of Paris Match on August 13, in a swimsuit on a Corsican beach, alongside his partner Léa Salamé, presenter of the France 2 news and journalist at France Télévisions.
“These are stolen photos. Paris Match does this every year, like other celebrity magazines,” assures Raphaël Glucksmann’s entourage to franceinfo. Similar photos were also visible on the front page of Public magazine on July 31. The couple, who go to the same Corsican beach every year, have already been the subject of similar photos in previous years. But on the eve of the presidential election, these new photos take on a much stronger and more symbolic dimension.
“It’s a good move for him”
“He is not president but he is put in a sort of equivalence with Emmanuel Macron by being on the same cover. This helps to give him stature,” believes a socialist deputy. “It’s a good move for him, because it allows him to acquire very useful notoriety and visibility,” adds Florian Silnicki. For him, the clichés can, however, create "a fundamental dissonance" between what the left-wing leader advocates and his vacation on the Isle of Beauty. “Yes, it’s Corsica, but simple Corsica. He is on his rock in a swimsuit in Corsica while the president is on his jet-ski,” defends the socialist deputy.
Do we necessarily have to go through photos in swimsuits on the beach to acquire or consolidate our connection with the French? Those around Sébastien Lecornu seem to think the opposite. The Prime Minister, who had caused a stir by strolling through the Vernon market (Eure) with his shopping bag and leeks in an issue of Paris Match in October 2025, repeated the blow, in July, by granting a major interview to the weekly, supplemented with photos still in the Vernon market, the city of which he was mayor.
This time, there is no question of stolen photos but a report made in consultation with the magazine. "We did not make the cover, unlike all the others. There is a lot of substance in the interview and little staff", welcomes the entourage of the head of government. While he is known to be very close to Emmanuel Macron, Sébastien Lecornu has here made a choice of image quite far from that of the head of state. It remains to be seen whether the image he is building among the French will allow him to secure his political future after Matignon.
