How tall is macron

Emmanuel Macron Height, Age, Wife, Family, Biography and More

• This article was amended on 7 February 2014 to remove a duplication of François Hollande in the table and spreadsheet which incorrectly named him as a German leader as well as the current President of France.

Statesmen and stature: how tall are our world leaders?

It seems we like our political giants to be just that – giants – according to research. So how does France’s new president François Hollande compare to past leaders?
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François Hollande will step into Nicolas Sarkozy’s shoes today when he is sworn in at the Elysée palace, becoming France’s first socialist leader in nearly 20 years. But how does he compare to the past leaders in terms of height?

Last year we were told stature really does matter according to a scientific paper published in Social Science Quarterly.

It was an opportunity too good to pass up so we compared the heights of various leaders from different countries and eras. Now we have a new leader in the pack we’re asking once again how tall really are our leaders? We’ve also compared them to the average height of statesmen of their country over the last 40 years.

At 5ft 7ins, Hollande is two inches taller than Sarkozy but also two inches shorter than the average height for French leaders of the past 40 years. Both David Cameron and Barack Obama beat the average height, standing tall at 6ft 1. As the first female Chancellor of Germany, it’s not suprising that Angela Merkel stands 5 inches shorter than the average height for German leaders.

In the scientific paper published last year psychologists from Texas Tech University found in a study that almost two-thirds of participants showed a preference to draw larger figures when asked to draw images of leaders. An evolutionary throwback has been suggested as the root of this. Nic Fleming wrote:

It is not for nothing that top politicians are known as political giants or “big beasts”. Voters see tall politicians as better suited for leadership, according to a survey of how people visualise their leaders. Psychologists believe the bias may stem from an evolved preference for physically imposing chiefs who could dominate enemies.

Cameron, Obama and Hollande have all beaten shorter candidates in past elections – Gordon Brown at 5ft 11ins, John McCain at 5ft 8ins and Sarkozy at 5ft 5ins.

The work, published by Dr Gregg Murray and J. David Schmitz, found evidence that would suggest physical stature affects people’s preferences for political leadership. The paper entitled ‘Caveman Politics’ on evolutionary psychology relates it back to ideas and beliefs gleaned from our prehistoric ancestors.

Well, apart from Cameron, Obama and Canada’s Stephen Harper who all come in at over six foot there are some current political leaders who are rather more diminutive. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is placed at somewhere around the 5ft 2ins mark.

America certainly seem to be following the rule with all but one of the US presidents in our list coming in at six foot or over. The UK have rather a mixed bag from Margaret Thatcher (5ft 5ins) and Winston Churchill (5ft 6ins) to Robert Gascoyne-Cecil who is believed to have been 6ft 4ins.

The table below shows a selection of world leaders, past and present, and their stature. Those in bold are current leaders.

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• This article was amended on 7 February 2014 to remove a duplication of François Hollande in the table and spreadsheet which incorrectly named him as a German leader as well as the current President of France.

Data summary

Heights of leaders – past and present

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Emmanuel Macron Height, Age, Wife, Family, Biography and More

• Does Emmanuel Macron drink alcohol?: Yes

• He was born in the City of Amiens in Northern France.

• His father was a Professor of Neurology at the University of Picardy and his mother was a Physician.

• As a boy, Macron preferred spending time with adults instead of kids his own age- having dinners with his teachers, avoiding advances of girls his own age, etc.

• After getting most of his education at the Jésuites de la Providence lycée in Amiens, his parents sent him to the élite high school Lycée Henri-IV in Paris to finish his last year of school.

• It was there at the Jésuites that he first made a public appearance when in May 1993, he appeared in Jean Tardieu’s “La comédie du langage” (The Language of Comedy).

• After getting his master’s degree in public affairs at Sciences Po, he worked as an Inspector of Finances in the French Ministry of Economy from 2004 to 2007.

• Soon, he developed a close bond with a prominent French economic and social theorist, Jacques Attali. It was Attali who played a critical role in Macron’s life that would earn him wealth and increase his grasp of the global financial system.

• In 2007, Macron served as deputy rapporteur for the Commission for improving French economic growth.

• Macron also worked at Rothschild and Cie Banque as an investment banker at a highly-paid position.

• He pushed the French Government through business-friendly reforms as Minister of the Economy.

• He started his political career with the Socialist Party in 2006, became an Independent Candidate in 2015, and founded his own progressive political movement, En Marche! (an independent political party) in 2016.

• He founded his political party, En Marche!, in Amiens, which is the City of his birth.

• In 2014, at the age of 37, Macron became France’s youngest-ever economy minister, replacing Arnaud Montebourg.

• After parting ways with the ruling Socialist Party in 2015, Macron launched his En Marche! (Onward) political movement.

• His wife, Brigitte Macron, is 24 years older to him. She has been his French Literature teacher. Macron met her first when he was only 15 years old and his parents disapproved of the relationship. At that time she was still married to her first husband.

• His parents tried to get him away from Brigitte Macron by sending him to Paris to finish his further studies. However, that didn’t work.

• His wife has 3 children (1 son and 2 daughters) with her first husband. She also has 7 grandchildren and that means Macron is a 39-year old step-grandfather.

• One of Macron’s daughters, 30-year-old Tiphaine Auziere, works on his presidential campaign.

• His wife’s Family Makes Millions as Chocolatiers in Amiens and you can order their chocolates online if you live in Europe.

• Macron and his wife have made a decision not to have children.

• On 16 November 2016, he announced his candidacy for the French presidency.

• Some observers have described Macron as Social Liberal while others as a Social Democrat.

• Macron considers her grandmother, Manette, one of his most influential childhood figures. It was Manette who introduced him to leftist ideals and instilled in him a lifelong passion for books.

• Here’s a snippet of Emmanule Macron’s meteoric political rise:

On 8 June 2021, a man slapped him while Macron was on a visit to a small town in southeastern France. The incident happened in the town of Tain-l’Hermitage where Mr. Macron was greeting the public waiting for him behind barriers after he visited a high school. Later, while talking about the incident, Mr. Macron said,

I’m always going to meet people. Some people express anger, sometimes disarray … that’s legitimate anger, and we will continue to respond. Stupidity and violence, no, not in democracy.”

• On 17 June 2023, he was accused of irresponsibility and toxic masculinity after a video went viral in which he was seen downing a bottle of Corona beer in 17 seconds in the Toulouse changing room after they beat La Rochelle at the Stade de France in Paris.

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