In politics, authority must be shown and manifested if it is to be believed, and the role of symbolism, or even staging, can not be a gimmick. Unless, perhaps, if you’re Donald Trump.
In the age of social media, an image can stir emotions much faster than words and the sight of the French President sporting reflective aviator sunglasses while speaking to the World Economic Forum at the Davos literally went around the planet in seconds.
Whatever words came out of his mouth were secondary for many who wondered ‘why on earth is he wearing dark glasses indoors?’ Had he fooling around and “slapped” again by Brigitte? Or had he perhaps taken a blow in the boxing ring? As we’ve seen Macron does like to show off his physical strength.
It’s unclear what caused the president’s burst blood vessel, but talk of it certainly matched, if not overshadowed, his speech, incredibly at a time when the leader of the Free World is threatening to annex Greenland, asphyxiate French winegrowers, and leaking personal text messages from his counterparts.
According to French media, Macron may have a sub-conjunctival haemorrhage, which is the bursting of a blood vessel in the protective tissue covering the eye.
This can occur when someone sneezes or coughs intensely, or if they poke or rub their eye. People with diabetes and high blood pressure may be more at risk of experiencing it.
In an address that has gone viral, Macron denounced a_”world without rules_” and an_”endless accumulation of new customs duties_”, saying he preferred_”respect rather than bullies_”, and called on Europe not to give in to the law of the strongest; all without ever mentioning the name of Donald Trump, who will be at Davos on Wednesday.
But as his message filtered through the room, outside the world were focussed on why he was wearing the aviators indoors. For much of the French public, there was no mystery as he wore them after meeting French air forces last week a visit during which his eye condition could be clearly seen, if you excuse the pun.
‘Eye of the tiger’
“Please pardon the unsightly appearance of my eye,” Macron said at the beginning of his speech. “It is, of course, something completely harmless.”
“Simply see an unintentional reference to the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ … For those who catch the reference, it is a sign of determination,” he joked, in an apparent reference to the name of the hit theme song by American rock band Survivor from the 1982 Rocky III movie starring Sylvester Stallone.
On X, while many have hailed it as a_”powerful rebuke_” against Trump, talking of a_”carton_” – French for an enormous success; and multiplying the emojis glasses-European flag-French flag. Others have opted for humour or satire, referring to glasses that are_”half Top Gun, half Joe Biden_”, and wondering whether the President will keep them on until the end of his term.
Some have even drawn parallels with the injury suffered by former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In early September 2023, he fell while jogging and shared a photo of himself wearing a black eye patch, joking that he was looking forward to the reactions of internet users and that_”it looked worse than it was_”.
According to the CNRTL (Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales), a scientific and collaborative resource, one of the meanings of the word “accessory” comes from its theatrical usage:“Object necessary for the performance or the stage“.
At Davos, when circumstances demanded seriousness and substance, Macron’s glasses became a political “prop” in their own right.