The Rothschild family motto: Concord, Integrity and Industry
After graduating from the ENA in 2004, Macron started off his career as a senior civil servant in the Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF), an elite corps within the Ministry for the Economy and Finance whose members are recruited from the highest-ranking ENA graduates.
Macron (right), in 2007 as part of the cross-party Attali commission set up to look at ways to boost French economic growth
"After graduating from the ENA in 2004, Macron started off his career as a senior civil servant in the Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF)..."But the ambitious young Ãâ°narque was growing restless and starting to get bored with his nine-to-five civil service job.
In 2008, he paid €50,000 to buy himself out of his government contract so that he could move to the private sector.
It wasn't just any old job that Emmanuel had set his sights on. He joined the prestigious investment bank Rothschild & Cie where he worked on mergers and acquisitions from 2008 to 2012 and acquired the sobriquet of the "Mozart of Finance".
Between 2008 and 2012 Macron pursued a short but highly lucrative career at Rothschild & Cie
"In 2007, he had his first taste of the limelight..."Over the years, the family's fortunes have flowed and ebbed with the tide of political events. For example, the interests of all Rothschild family branches across Europe were adversely impacted to a significant degree by the popular uprisings of 1848, the Great Depression of the 1930s and the rise of anti-Jewish resentments followed by World War II.
In the 1930s, their substantial railroad holdings were nationalized by the French government and after the fall of France 1940 the Nazis confiscated the Paris bank.
The bank was restored to family ownership at the end of the war but in 1981 it was once again removed from their hands, this time following nationalisation by the Socialist government of President François Mitterrand.
"But the ambitious young Ãâ°narque was growing restless and starting to get bored with his nine-to-five civil service job."It was only after the Socialists lost power in 1986 that the Rothschilds managed to obtain a new banking license in France.
In 1987 Baron David René de Rothschild joined by other family members including cousin Eric de Rothschild created a successor company, Rothschild & Cie Banque.
Capitalised at a mere $€ 1 million and starting with just three employees, they rapidly expanded their operation into a major player in France and continental Europe.
"Macron's share of the fees on this €€ 9€ billion deal made him a millionaire."According to French media reports, Macron was head-hunted by François Henrot, one of David de Rothschild's most trusted associates, on the recommendation of Jacques Attali and Alain Minc -- another Ãâ°narque and former Inspecteur des Finances.
After working on the recapitalization of the newspaper Le Monde and the acquisition of Siemens IT Solutions and Services by Atos in 2010 / 2011, Macron was promoted to a partner.
Soon afterwards, he was appointed as managing director and put in charge of Nestlé's acquisition of one of Pfizer's largest subsidiaries, its infant food unit. Macron's share of the fees on this €€ 9€ billion deal made him a millionaire.
The "Mozart of Finance" got a good return on the € 50,000 he invested to buy himself out of his civil service contract
Macron with Eric de Rothschild in April 2017 during the presidential election campaign
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron with David de Rothschild at the 2018 CRIF annual dinner
Brigitte Macron having a good old giggle with David de Rothschild at the CRIF annual dinner in 2019
Claude Chirac, David de Rothschild and Brigitte Macron at the 90th birthday celebrations for actress Line Renaud in Paris
"Macron's connections to the Rothschilds go beyond purely financial affairs."Back in March 2017 when the election campaign was in its final stages and Macron's victory was by no means certain, the Financial Times noted that "Emmanuel Macron’s Rothschild years make him an easy election target".
The article cited Luc Rouban, a professor at CEVIPOF, research centre of the Paris Institute of Political Studies known as "Sciences Po". According to Rouban, the Eurozone debt crisis, along with an underlying suspicion of the monetary system and globalised capitalism, had intensified anti-bank sentiment among the public with the consequence that most candidates -- with the exception of Macron -- were promising to rein in the power of financial institutions.
"According to Rouban, the Eurozone debt crisis, along with an underlying suspicion of the monetary system and globalised capitalism, had intensified anti-bank sentiment among the public with the consequence that most candidates -- with the exception of Macron -- were promising to rein in the power of financial institutions."According to Rouban: “This makes Macron look like the candidate of the globalised elite.”
The FT article also referred to an incident at the start of March 2017 in which the centre-right Les Républicains party, successor to the UMP, triggered a political "shitstorm" by tweeting a caricature that appeared to borrow heavily from the anti-Semitic propaganda iconography of the 1930s.
Macron was depicted as "the banker's candidate" with a long hooked nose and a top hat, using a sickle to cut a cigar and surrounded by allies from his circle of trust.
A caricature of Macron tweeted by Les Républicains borrowed heavily from anti-Semitic tropes of the 1930s and unleashed a storm of criticism about the standard of the political debate.
An apology was quickly issued and the controversial caricature was replaced by a photograph.
"The caricature sparked an veritable "shitstorm" on social media, and it was soon replaced with more innocuous photograph of Macron.""I understand the emotion it may have triggered because it alluded to drawings from a dark period in our history and had echos of an ideology I have always fought against," Fillon said. "Political combat is tough but it must remain dignified,” he added, saying he had asked the party’s secretary general to punish those who have given the party an "image totally contrary to our values".
The En Marche! spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux, criticised Les Républicains' "use of terms and images that tap into the anti-Semitic imagination" and he expressed concerns about the quality of the debate and "the state of mind that prevails among the management of some [campaigns]".
It deserves to be said at this point that Macron has never made any secret of his Rothschild connections. These connections have been well documented in the French media and in books such as "Rothschild, une banque au pouvoir" ("Rothschild, a bank in power") which examines the influence of the bank in French politics.
"It deserves to be said at this point that Macron has never made any secret of his Rothschild connections."Thierry Breton on the other hand is much more circumspect in this regard and he seems to do everything he possibly can to conceal his close business and social connections to the illustrious financial dynasty.
A quick glance at the LinkedIn entries of the French President and his newly appointed Commissioner in Brussels confirms their difference approaches on this issue.
Emmanuel makes no bones about disclosing his previous employment relationship with Rothschild & Cie from 2008 to 2012. For him it's like a badge of honour that he wears with pride.
"A quick glance at the LinkedIn entries of the French President and his newly appointed Commissioner in Brussels confirms their difference approaches on this issue."However, Thierry prefers to keep shtum about his own stint as a senior advisor for the US branch of the Rothschilds between 2007 and 2008.
Come on Thierry, it's an open secret so what exactly is it that you are trying to hide?
In the next part we will look at how Thierry's old pal, the "killer shark" from Baker McKenzie and the IMF, resurfaced in European waters earlier this year as a result of Macron's political machinations in Brussels. ⬆