FRENCH PRESIDENTS, HEIRS OF KINGS

FRANCE'S PRESIDENT HOLLANDE WAS ALONE TO WEAR A TIE AT A MEETING OF HEADS OF STATE

(IN 2012)

Obama (the host): "You don't have to wear a tie."

Hollande: "I must do so for my country's press."

Dharapak/SIPA

The weight of tradition

Louis XIV, château de Versailles                      "Abe" Lincoln, poster sold on the web

French or foe? by Polly Platt, 1994 

Prime Minister Edward (never "Ed") Balladur and President "Bill" (never William) Clinton

The cost of defiance 

Holland's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, might not even have brought a tie, and regardless of being on the left or the right, many French people considered his disregard for decorum unbearable for a Head of State: "He'd say, if you haven't heard me, turn up the sound." "He will be remembered as a great president, but he missed his rendez-vous with the French." 

He lost the election mainly because center- and far-right parties refused to endorse him (for opposing reasons). But he did receive 48,38% of the vote: did his flouting tradition tilt the balance?

White House, Élysées palace — French Presidents must behave as heirs of kings:

Richard Nahem

Hollande tried to seem "normal" after Sarkozy. But in a different way he lacked the dignity that the French expect from their Presidents, an attitude that contributed to his becoming even more unpopular. 

An ad that features Louis XVI's farewell to his family implies that most French people appreciate the kings...

  

Exhibit announcement in the métro, 2016 

...and Président Macron has said, "In democracy there is something lacking, the figure of a king."  

-- Cited in The New York Times, May 21, 2017

Macron has tried to restore that aura,
but Louis XIV is a hard act to follow.

A sticker in the 13th district

End of this section.

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Next section:
How the city itself reveals kings' lasting clout. 

III.2.
A modern royal city