Following a swearing in ceremony and a parade along the Champs-Élysées, Macron attended an official reception with the socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, at the landmark Hôtel de Ville (City Hall).
Despite the central location – in the very heart of a city which voted 90% in favor of Macron – and much media hype surrounding the day’s ceremonies, well-wishers were extremely limited as seen in the aerial view above. In fact, there were barely as many people as had showed up for a royalist and nationalist march taking place nearby – an event where participants were calling for the dismantling of the republic and a return of the French monarchy.
The phone call to France 2 appeared to have the desired effect, Le Canard notes; Images soon switched to the desired view, and in the channel’s evening highlights, all wide-angle and unflattering aerial shots had been replaced with pleasing close-ups of the crowd, creating an altogether different picture, as shown below.
Wide shots were dropped in favor of close-up images following the phone call to France 2 television.
Crowds increased after this earlier photo was taken but not significantly, leaving an optics problem for Team Macron