Emmanuel Macron's 2017 and 2022 Presidential Campaigns: Selected Aspects

: The aim of this article is to analyse Emmanuel Macron's 2017 and 2022 election campaigns. The first part of the article focuses on Macron's 2017 campaign, taking into account elements specific to election campaigns, such as election slogans, social media activity, the electoral programme, television debates, and describes the main themes of the election campaign, along with a discussion of the results of the first and second rounds of the election. An analogous analysis is then presented in relation to the 2022 election campaign. The issue of the war in Ukraine and its role for the campaign taking place at the same time is highlighted. The paper concludes by considering the differences noted in the two campaigns run by the leader of the En Marche!/ Renaissance.


Introduction
Presidential campaigns have always stirred up huge emotions in society.This is no different in Macron base his 2017 and 2022 campaigns on social media?What themes in his 2017 and 2022 campaigns.Emmanuel Macron devoted the most time to?
In relation to the above-mentioned research questions, the author posed the following hypotheses (H), which will be tested later in the article: H1: Compared to 2017, there was a change in the way Emmanuel Macron campaigned in 2022.H2: Social media was not the dominant channel for campaigning.H3: Among the most discussed topics in Macron's 2017 campaign were migration policy, and in 2022 the war in Ukraine and security.
This paper first looks at the historical background of the presidential elections on France, then it provides a critical overview of 2017 and 2022 campaigns.
To answer the research questions in the article, this paper adopts the quantitative-qualitative method.The quantitative method was used to analyse pre-election polls and election results, and to compare the number of social media posts.Particularly notable is the document analysis method, which allowed the author to study official speeches, social media posts or interviews.The research tools used by the author in the article include Twitter platforms, YouTube, statistical data and the content of the French president's speeches.For the purpose of the article, 224 Twitter posts and 8 videos on the Youtube platform were analysed.The press and information services in French, English and Polish were analysed.

Historical background and significance of the presidential elections in France
This part provides a brief historical overview of Presidential elections in France to set up a background for the study of 2017 and 2022 presidential campaigns, the subject of the subsequent parts of this paper.
When analysing the development of democracy, also in the particular context of French political election, it should be noted that the political system indicated existed in classical (direct) and modern (indirect) forms.The emergence of states with large areas and a large number of people entitled to participate in political life, like in France with its current 60 million citizens, meant that, in order to introduce democratic governance in these states, it was necessary to design the exercise of power by the citizens in a different way.This is how the origins of elections can be summarised.
Today we have many types of elections: from presidential, to parliamentary or local elections (Rachwał, 2017).
The Fifth French Republic was created on the initiative of General Charles de Gaulle in 1958 (that year, on 4 October, the constitution in force today was adopted).The Fifth Republic arose from the ineffectiveness of the Fourth Republic, which had a parliamentary system.In just 12 years of its existence, there were as many as 24 governments.It was therefore decided, under the impetus of Charles de Gaulle, a staunch opponent of the system, to transfer power to the President.Since then, France has had a semi-presidential system with features of both a presidential and a parliamentary-cabinet system.Among the characteristics of this system are the direct election of the president by popular vote , but also the existence of a government headed by a prime minister, which distinguishes it from the presidential system (Conseil Constitutionnel, n.d.).For more than 60 years of the Fifth Republic, presidential elections were the most popular.The higher turnout for presidential elections is mainly an effect of catalogue powers available to the President of the Republic.He has far broader constitutional powers than the other executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.His role in the French political system is of great importance, so the fact that he is elected by universal suffrage is certainly a major factor in why French people participate so actively in elections.Elections are held every five years and the winner is entitled to seek one re-election.Before 2000, the term of office under the 1958 Constitution was seven years.
A political situation, especially one with such a long history as the French one, researchers can analyse by using critical discourse analysis.A political situation, especially one with such a long history as the French one, can be analysed by means of critical discourse analysis.The book 'The Handbook of Discourse Analysis' defines critical discourse analysis as a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context.Groups or single politician have power if they are able to control the acts and minds of (members of) other groups (Schiffrin, Tannen & Hamilton, 2001).This is evident throughout French history, where the absolute monarchy was overthrown in a revolution, where Charles de Gaulle created the Fifth Republic almost from scratch and who is still the most popular French president (with 65% of support in 2018) (Statista, 2018), but also today, where completely different methods are used to influence citizens and their groups.However, the difference is that today one can see a definite connection between political discourse and media discourse.

EMMANUEL MACRON'S CAMPAIGN AND THE 2017 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Having established the basic laws and rules of French Presidential system, this part looks at how the 2017 presidential campaign and elections were performed.It argues that at the end of November 2016, Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly announced that he would run for the French presidency.
Although there were speculations about his candidacy, at the time he was not a distinctive enough figure to be talked about as a potential head of state."I am running for the presidency because, more than anything else, I believe that we can succeed, that France can succeed."(Barbière, 2016) -With these words, Macron confirmed in his speech that he would face a battle for the leadership of one of the largest countries on the Old Continent.Perhaps surprisingly at the time, Macron was one of President Hollande's advisers.His candidacy therefore greatly reduced the likelihood of the Socialists retaining power .After all, he was a trustee of the Rothschild Bank and oversaw the buyout of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer by Nestle, which enriched him considerably (Lewin, 2017).
Macron decided to set up his own En Marche! (Forward) movement a few months before announcing his run for election, while still Minister of the Economy.Those unfavourable to Macron looked for his own initial (EM) in the name, which was supposed to indicate the high selfesteem of the then minister.The movement aimed to become an alternative for progressive voters on both the right and the left.The very idea of the new movement, as well as the announcement of his intention to run for the position of head of state, attracted a great deal of media attention, so much so that Macron's opponents began to call it a disease called 'macronite' (Lewin, 2017).
From the very beginning, one thing set Macron apart from the other candidates.He was the only strongly pro-EU candidate among the most popular candidates.Le Pen and Mélenchon, in particular, were strong critics of closer cooperation at the EU level.This asymmetry certainly worked in Emmanuel Macron's favour because, despite the fact that the French are one of the more Eurosceptic nations (in one survey, up to 65% of French people said that the European Union was not effective) (Cautrès, Chopin, & Rivière, 2020), the difference between supporters and opponents is not large.This means that the support of Eurosceptics was spread over several candidates, while Euro-enthusiasts had essentially only one option.

Election slogans and posters
A very important part of running an election campaign is creating a catchy slogan to appeal to potential voters.Slogans aim to state in a few words the candidate's intentions, to catch the attention of the audience, as well as being a kind of tool for building persuasive language (Pienias, 2018).
Emmanuel Macron's slogans in the first and second rounds of the election were different.Before the first round, he presented a poster with the slogan 'President Macron' and the caption 'France must be an opportunity for all'.Experts pointed out that it is rare for a candidate to already surround his name with the prefix 'president' on an election poster (Le Monde, 2017).The photo depicted on the poster shows Macron against a blurred background against which silhouettes of young people can nevertheless be seen.Analysing the symbolism of this poster, one can make the claim that Macron is a candidate who wants to be close to the people, feeling like one of them.Given the accusations of being an establishment candidate (Le Monde, 2017), Macron seemingly aimed to show with this poster that the popular opinion about him was not true.Before the second round, both Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen unveiled new posters with new slogans.What drew attention was the fact that the slogans of the contenders differed by just one word.Macron with his slogan "Ensemble, la France !" (Together, France!) emphasised his commitment to the community and, at the same time, marked a different approach from his rival, who presents a nationalist stance (Le Monde, 2017).The poster before the second round was much simpler.It featured a portrait of Macron against a blue background, with no reference to political affiliation, no title of 'president', a slogan consisting of two words.
One of the core goal of political discourse analysis (in addition critical study of language) is to look for the ways in which language choice is manipulated for specific political effect.This is the role of language and language structure, and its manipulation for political message (Schiffrin, Tannen & Hamilton, 2001).This is how the role of a campaign we can define.Through the use of skilful language and the use of the 'we' narrative, Macron apparently wanted to demonstrate a sense of community that is often undermined in a divided French society.

Social media in election campaigning
In the 21st century, social media activity has become an integral part of election campaigning.
Since social media has become an important part of people's lives, it has allowed direct communication with voters.The media in election campaigns is designed to bring the candidate closer to the voters.The role of the media in election campaigns can be based on Irena Tetelowska's theory.Although Tetelowska was defining the role of the press in society, her theories still seem to be relevant today, in the age of social media.She distinguishes, for example, the function of communication between individuals and groups distant in time and space.This is precisely one of the roles of social media in election campaigns -a candidate reaches many people in different corners of the country and the world with his or her demands through a single post.The function of media in electoral campaigns is even better described by the function of influence cited by Tetelowska.It is aimed at evoking specific emotional reactions or triggering specific actions.The activities of a candidate in the media have precisely such a goal of evoking sympathy and, consequently, convincing the voter to vote for him or her (Tetelowska, 1962).Such a treatment may have been particularly effective against Macron's image as a wealthy businessman.

Key themes of the 2017 presidential campaign
The 2017 campaign took place during a period of numerous terrorist attacks and the migration crisis in the European Union.Therefore, the topic of migration was one that dominated public debate in France during the pre-election period.Moreover, due to the terrorist threat, President Hollande imposed a state of emergency in the country, which lasted until November 2017.
Although the word 'migration' was not used once in Macron's election programme, this does not mean that the topic was not included only under other names.In the programme, the later winner referred to knowledge of the French language as a condition for citizenship, to the integration of immigrants, and announced subsidies for entrepreneurs who choose to employ people living in 'particularly vulnerable neighbourhoods', as the programme called immigrant neighbourhoods.He also placed great emphasis on the fight against discrimination and announced the lifting of the ban on wearing the headscarf in universities.Compared to his opponents, he presented a very liberal vision of the treatment of foreigners and French people of other origins.His references to the unity of the French nation also showed that, for Macron, all French people, whether native or not, should be treated equally (Podgórska, 2020).The minority vote, due to their huge number living in France, certainly boosted the statistics of the leader of the En Marche! movement.However, on the other hand, due to the terrorist threats and the ever-decreasing percentage of native French speakers, a strong anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim discourse is present in the country, which Marine Le Pen has certainly convinced with her programme.
The notion of racism and prejudice also appears in critical analysis of political discourse.
Uta Quasthoff points out that the use of such a narrative is supposed to lead to a distance from foreign groups and an increase in in-group community (Schiffrin, Tannen & Hamilton, 2001).This narrative was used by Emmanuel Macron's counter-candidate, some of whose statements and demands directly implied that she did not support the growing number of people of black and Arab descent.However, it should be remembered that the history of strong migratory movements can be traced back to the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, and thus the descendants of the first migrants are already the next generation born in France.Quasthoff points out that this narrative is meant to increase the sense of community within the group.Macron also has this aim, but he recognises all French residents as a community.

Macron's election programme -selected aspects
The topic of migration policy was of course not the only one addressed in Emmanuel Macron's programme.Among his promises were a lot of economic demands -a fact that is not surprising given that one of the creators of Macron's programme was Jean Pisani-Ferry, the famous French professor of economics (Haerder & Böll, 2018).Examples include pension reform, deficit reduction, lowering unemployment or savings in public sector spending (on this issue, the loudest demand was to reduce the number of parliamentarians).In addition, he emphasised security issues such as increasing the number of prison places, hiring more public servants or increasing penalties for drug use.His programme was largely devoted to culture, which was reflected, among other things, in the idea of creating a voucher worth EUR 500 for every 18-year-old for cultural and educational purposes (TVN 24, 2017).

Presidential election
The first round of the election took place on 23 April 2017, and the vote ended with a turnout of more than 77%.Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen entered the second round, while it is worth noting that there was actually little difference between the first four candidates.In addition, it was surprising that no one from the duopoly of Socialists and neo-Gaullists in power since the beginning of the Fifth Republic got into the second round (it is worth mentioning that President Hollande withdrew from the fight for re-election due to very bad results in the polls).However, it became extremely important to win support in the second round from Fillon and Mélenchon, who together won almost 40% of the vote in the first round.While Fillon called for Macron to be elected instead of Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon decided not to support anyone in the second round (Deutsche Welle, 2017).
On 3 May 2017, a historic debate took place ahead of the second round of the French presidential election.Historic because both candidates came from outside the mainstream of the French political scene.The following day, most of the media declared Macron the winner of the debate, while Le Pen was accused of constant aggression.The centre and far-right candidates exchanged personal insults and talked about how they thought they could fix the sluggish French economy and fight terrorism.Unfortunately, the debate became known as 'dirty and dishonest' during which the candidates were more willing to multiply provocations and attacks on each other than to develop their electoral postulates (Le Parisien, 2022).
The second round was held on 7 May 2017, the turnout was about 2.5% lower (74.5%).
The results confirmed the polls and Emmanuel Macron emerged as the winner with 66.1%.What is surprising, however, is where the new president chose to spend his election night.Indeed, he abandoned the Place de la Concord, where Presidents Chirac and Sarkozy had celebrated their victories -a place clearly associated with the right.From the outset, he abandoned the idea of the Bastille and the Place de la Republique, which were reminiscent of the workers' tradition and where the first representative of the left in the Élysée Palace, President Mitterand, celebrated his victory.
Macron, wishing to break with his image as a representative of the Socialists (especially as he sat in President Hollande's administration) and at the same time not to place himself entirely on the side of the right, chose a non-partisan venue and held his election night in a place symbolic of Paris -in front of the Louvre (Pruchnicka, 2022).

EMMANUEL MACRON'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN AND THE 2022 ELECTIONS
During Emmanuel Macron's five years in office, the situation in France, Europe and the world has changed enormously.The president has long delayed officially announcing his intention to seek re-election.Even before he announced it, polls were appearing at the beginning of February saying that the incumbent had a chance of staying in power -giving him as much as a 79% chance of winning.However, the French have a tendency towards what is known as dégagisme, which in this context means changing the president straight away after one term in office without giving him a chance of re-election -so far only Mitterrand and Chirac have been re-elected.According to The Economist's model, in February it was not Le Pen but the centre-right Republican candidate, Valérie Pécresse, who was identified as the most serious rival for Macron (The Economist, 2022).
Before Macron had time to announce his candidacy, on 24 February 2022, after three decades, war broke out in Europe due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.Even before the war started, Emmanuel Macron was one of the most involved politicians in mediation.After the outbreak of war, Macron did not give up his active efforts, according to him, to extinguish the conflict.The French president's activities in this regard became the subject of enormous criticism.
Macron was accused of engaging in dialogue with Putin, the best evidence of which is the French president's visit to the Kremlin on 10 February 2022 (Malinowski, 2022).
The official announcement of Emmanuel Macron's candidacy for the French presidency took place on 3 March 2022, less than five and a half weeks before the first round of voting.He did not announce his intention to run for election, as he had done five years earlier in a speech, however, he chose to publish a letter to the French people.He began the letter with the words: "We have faced many trials together over the past five years.Terrorism, a pandemic, war in Europe: rarely has France faced such an accumulation of crises," (La Croix, 2022) with these words Macron began his reflections, which were published in several newspapers.He went on to ask for trust for a second term.The way he announced his candidacy was already quite unexpected and could be related to the previously mentioned sacralisation of the presidential function.Issuing a letter instead of a public speech increases prestige and distance and adds a seriousness to the office of president that is needed in such dynamic times (La Croix, 2022).Moreover, Macron registered his candidacy 24 hours before the deadline, which was intended to keep voters in the dark until the very end.

Election slogans and posters
As during his first campaign, Emmanuel Macron decided to publish his election poster.This time, the issue of the incumbent president's election slogan caused quite a bit of controversy.Less than 15 days before the first round of voting, Macron decided to change his election slogan.Initially, in addition to his name, the slogan 'Avec vous' (With you) appeared on the posters.However, there was a change to 'Nous tous', or 'We all'.According to the president's entourage, this change was due to the desire to "embody the unity of the nation".Once again, therefore, Emmanuel Macron alluded to values such as unity (His 2017 slogan translated was: Together!).The target group of this slogan, as explained by Macron's entourage, is people excluded by a divisive discourse, rejecting extremism, divisions, people who expect a president with a constant concern for the unity of the country.In addition, the campaign team organised a competition that became an object of media's derision.According to him, the campaign activists who invite the most people to election meetings would win a meeting with a minister or a portrait signed by the president (Paillou, 2022).

Social media in the election campaign
Social media played an even bigger role in 2022 than five years earlier.Moreover, Macron could already count on a much higher reach for his posts as French president than when he was a newcomer to the political scene.The letter announcing his candidacy was published on Twitter when Macron had 8 million followers.There was a loud debate around the use of Twitter as a political campaign tool in France.Therefore, in the middle of March, the French state institution of controlling the election campaign asked Emmanuel Macron's staff to stop using the president's official Twitter account to publish election material.The request was complied with and Macron has since used a separate account created specifically for the campaign called 'Emmanuel Macron avec vous.'However, the reach of this account was considerably lower (only a few tens of thousands of observers).For this reason, Macron's campaign appealed to the other candidates to also comply with the committee's request.Indeed, it applied not only to Macron, but also to candidates Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, and Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France (Paris agglomeration), who had not implemented the recommendations (Kayali, 2022).It therefore became clear that Twitter would not be the main tool for campaigning in the 2022 campaign.The campaign staff account was not an effective campaign tool.In the case of an account signed with a name, internet users felt a direct connection to the candidate.The staff account did not give such a feeling, so the 2017 campaign on Twitter relied more on sharing videos of the president and presenting programme objectives.After the TV debate before the second round, the 'Avec vous' account started to use negative campaigning against Marine Le Pen.Quotes and demands from Macron's counter-candidate were quoted and related to the incumbent's statements.It can be concluded that this style of campaigning before the second round was due to the awareness that the majority of Macron's voters were not his supporters, but opponents of Marine Le Pen.However, this series of posts was not successful -none of the tweets concerning Marine Le Pen even gained 1,000 likes.
Macron's team had to look for alternatives.One such tool was the creation of a miniseries published on the Emmanuel Macron election staff's YouTube account.The series was titled "Emmanuel Macron, le Candidat."For example, in the second episode of the series, Macron's meeting with voters was shown.The video begins with a scene in the car as the president prepares and takes handwritten notes.After the fracas of the meeting, the action shifts again to the car, where, almost at night, Macron talks to the person filming.This is undeniably a strategy to build the image of a normal man who is no different from ordinary citizens.This is the same goal Macron wanted to achieve on Twitter in 2017.The videos, however, are more direct, and although they reach a smaller number of people, they make the image of the candidate more decent.

Meetings with voters
Macron has also decided to intensify direct meetings with voters in 2022.In addition to the traditional local meetings in Marseille, Spézet, Fouras, Dijon, Pau or Nice, Macron has decided to organise one election rally on the American model.On 2nd of April, at one of the largest stadiums in Europe-París La Défense Arena, Macron gathered a crowd of supporters.The event took place at a time when, according to polls, the leading candidates were closing in on the incumbent president's support.In his speech, he focused on the major successes of his first term in office and the key tenets of his programme (Chadwick, 2022).
He began his speech in Nanterre (where the stadium is located) with the topic of the war in Ukraine.This shows how much the war on the continent has affected the French presidential campaign.Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Macron has given 19 official speeches and in only.The Russian aggression was a very good opportunity for Macron to build a campaign against Marine Le Pen.After all, Macron's most prominent counter-candidate has been repeatedly accused of having links with Putin.
In his speech, Macron did more than sum up his first term.He also outlined his plans for the future (including announcing an increase in the retirement age, which seems particularly relevant).He tried, as it were, to justify some of the failures of the last five years -he said that the last few years had been "particularly difficult".Knowing that his first term was not particularly popular, Macron said he was a very different person to the 5 years before.He ended his very long speech with a series of questions addressed to voters.Among other things, he asked: Do you want a stronger, fairer France in the new Europe?Do you want a France that protects, provides security for our values?Do you want France to be an independent agricultural, industrial, technological and energy power?These types of questions addressed in the second person plural suggest that Macron is addressing the French directly.His questions suggested answers in the affirmative, regardless of whether we asked voters on the left or the right.It may be that with such a move Macron wanted to rally people with different views in his person, however, one can see this part of his speech as a populist promise that France would change after Macron's victory (even though he has been in power for the last five years).

Presidential election
The first round was held on 10 April 2022.Turnout was 73.69%, unusually low for French conditions.In this presidential election, the results of candidates with extreme views resonated widely.Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Éric Zemmour together won 52.17% of the vote, more than half.This shows that populists and politicians with extreme views -both far-left like Mélenchon, but also far-right like Le Pen and Zemmour -are becoming popular in France.In the end, Emmanuel Macron entered the second round with 27.85% and Marine Le Pen with 23.15%.
It is worth pointing out that the results of the first round showed that France is divided into three parts: the centrist Macron, the far-right Le Pen and the far-left Mélenchon supporters.These trends promise an extremely interesting fight in 2027, given that Emmanuel Macron will no longer be able to run in them.
A TV debate was traditionally held before the second round.Once again, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen sat opposite each other.The conversation, which lasted as long as 2.5 hours, had a completely different level than five years earlier.The debate did not lack a Ukrainian thread -this shows the relevance of the situation, as traditionally in election campaigns and debates, international issues are not raised much, but rather focus on domestic politics.During the debate, Macron pointed out to the far-right candidate a complete change in rhetoric -as Marine Le Pen tried to dissociate herself, as it were, from her relationship with Vladimir Putin, even accusing the then president of collaborating with the Russians.According to the press, Macron fared much better on economic issues and, despite Le Pen's better preparation, 59% of respondents named Macron as the winner of the debate (Brunet, 2022).Another hypothesis of social media-based campaign was also verified positively.Given the extent to which social media is dependent on the daily life of society, it would be impossible to run a campaign in the 21st century without the use of social media.In contrast, it is worth noting that in 2022, despite Macron's presence on Twitter, he tended to focus on creating audiovisual material and posting key electoral demands in graphic form on his social media profiles.In 2017, as mentioned above, Twitter played the biggest role in the creation of Emmanuel Macron's online campaign.

Concluding note
When positively verifying the last hypothesis, which identifies as the important campaign themes: in 2017, migration policy, and in 2022, the war in Ukraine.In 2017, one of the dominant topics of the French presidential campaign was migration policy, which was related to the migration crisis that the European Union had been facing since 2015.In 2022, the dominant topic in European politics was the war in Ukraine, which made it a very important part of the French campaign.Although usually the campaign itself centres around domestic themes, both the 2017 and 2022 elections took place in a time of crises.The former took place during the biggest migration crisis since the beginning of a united Europe, which, due to France's demographic structure and the fact that it was one of the destination countries for migrants, was an extremely relevant topic in French public debate.In turn, the war on the continent, which started just before the 2022 campaign began, completely dominated European political discourse and sparked a discussion about the effectiveness of the European security system, which was also of great importance for France, as the largest army in the European Union.
Chart 1. Voter turnout in French presidential elections from 1965 to 2022 by ballot Source: Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1068866/participation-rate-voter-turnout-presidential-electionsfrance/(29.06.2023).Chart 1 shows that over the years, turnout in French presidential elections has been extremely high, never falling below 65%.The lowest was in 1969, when Georges Pompidou won the battle for the Elysée Palace.Notably, the second-lowest turnout result of 73.7% took place during the 2022 presidential election, when Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen were the most likely to win.
Macron's 2017 and 2022  campaigns were very different from each other, although they had several common elements.First and foremost, in both campaigns Emmanuel Macron emphasised the idea of unity and equality for the entire French community.However, it is important to stress the effectiveness of both forms of campaigning; both ended in victory for Emmanuel Macron, making him the first president in two decades to win re-election.It can therefore be considered positively verified that, compared to 2017, there has been a change in the way Emmanuel Macron campaigns for the 2022 election.The second campaign, due to the incumbent's position, had a different character.More attention was paid to face-to-face meetings with voters.Twitter played a much greater role in the creation of the candidate's image in 2017.Not insignificant for the leading themes of the campaign was the completely different international situation in 2022 compared to five years earlier.
Emmanuel Macron's campaign demonstrated a new media campaign strategy.He criticised the huge media presence of his predecessor François Hollande, which, in his view, contributed to the desacralisation of the presidential function.This sacralisation derives from the time of De Gaulle and consists of limiting the head of state's appearances in the media, with the aim, as it were, of 'sanctifying' presidential opinion.Macron, on the other hand, despite his limited trust in the media, actively built his campaign precisely on social media(Cohen, 2017).The main tool for this was Twitter.Macron focused on building his personal brand precisely through this portal.He also remained active on Instagram and Facebook, but was most popular on Twitter.Macron was often accused of focusing more on European Union issues than on France itself.However, between the announcement of his candidacy and the first round of the presidential election, the slogan 'France' appeared in as many as 148 of his posts, while 'Europe' appeared in 76.This disparity indicates that Macron referred to his country more often in his social media campaign, but the number of mentions of Europe was also high.For his tweets, Macron created hashtags referring to election slogans.Before the first round, most posts ended with #MacronPrésident(President Macron), and between the first and second rounds with #Ensemble (Together).Analysing Macron's Twitter posts from the 2017 campaign period, it's worth highlighting the special meaning of the word "we."Macron often wrote in the first-person plural.Examples include: "The spring will be ours" "We need Europe," "Europe makes us bigger and stronger."With such a narrative, Macron built a sense of community and showed that he was the same as others.