God Among Men: Why The French Hate Emmanuel Macron

God Among Men: Why The French Hate Emmanuel Macron

Dynamic, centrist, a statesman, Emmanuel Macron is respected and appreciated across much of the world. At home, it’s a different story. After a decade in power, he’s a byword for dissatisfaction and even hate in France. 

The tensions he has fired up across the country are windows into some of the most searing questions of what makes France today. His ambitious vision for France and his bullish approach to enacting it have repeatedly clashed with the cultural norms and democratic expectations of the French people. 

God Among Men drops the reader into the lives of everyday French people forever changed by the politics of Macron. It’s a front-row seat to how the “Jupiterian” president tried -- and failed -- to win over the people of France. 

About the author

Joseph Ataman is a London-born journalist living and working in Paris. From the historic battlefield of Verdun to the sun-baked villages of southern France, from Saturday protests to Friday prayers, Ataman has crisscrossed France covering the country and its people for international viewers and readers.

He’s fallen in love and had kids, wrestled with bureaucracy and learned how to eat well, spent countless hours on cafe terraces and discovered a country we all think we know. Through Brexit, Covid-19, a war in Ukraine and two Trump presidencies, he’s seen France and her people through the prism of an unprecedented moment in her history.

A field producer for CNN, Ataman has spent years covering the twists and turns of French politics and interviewing people across the country. In 2022, Ataman ran CNN’s coverage of Macron’s re-election.