Brigitte Macron - what we know about the likely first lady of France
Text: Elena Nuryaeva
Last sunday In France, the first round of presidential elections was held, which resulted in two candidates coming to the second - and last - round: head of the national front, Marine Le Pen, who holds extreme right views, and Emmanuel Macron, “French Obama,” a young progressive politician who occupies a centrist and pro-European position.
Trump's recent incident clearly demonstrated that it’s not always the most obvious candidate to come to power, and surprises can happen even in a politically balanced country. Nevertheless, it is very likely that a native of Amiens Emmanuel Macron, in May, will become the next president of France, and the first lady of the country, his wife Brigitte Macron. Many opponents of Macron are confused not only by his “too young” age for such a post (the policy has recently turned 39 years old), but also by Brigitte’s age - she is 24 years older than her husband, and the future president met his wife as a youth, which more than once This campaign became a reason for a lot of gossip. The pair is held in an effective tandem, with dignity parrying attacks. We understand why France has a chance to get perhaps the best first lady in a long time.
Nearest advisor to husband
“If they choose me, or rather not — if they choose us,” touchingly confused in the wording of Emmanuel Macron on the eve of the first round of elections, “Brigitte will undoubtedly have a place in my team, a separate post and his own mission.” Journalist and writer Ben Judah spent the whole day traveling around France with Macron, and believes that the presidential candidate is a surprisingly closed, impenetrable person enclosed in the armor of his irresistible image. And this image is the work of Brigitte Throne.
They met when the future politician was only fifteen years old: Brigitte taught him literature and acting at the Jesuit high school in Amiens. Emmanuel, according to his classmates, always differed from his peers: he was fond of classical music and poetry, dreamed of becoming a writer and kept his distance from everyone. The teacher, who discussed the plays of Harold Pinter and the work of Gilles Deleuze with him, soon became his closest interlocutor, and after a few years, when Emmanuel reached the age of majority, their constant intercourse developed into a novel. Is it worth to clarify that this news has become a scandal in the scale of a small city, causing the anger of conservative residents, and most importantly - the parents of the young Macron, who immediately banished his son to study in Paris. Parting with his beloved, he, as Brigitte recalls, said that “this is not the end” - indeed, in 2007 the couple officially married and the youngest possible president in the history of modern France also became the unprecedented young grandfather for seven grandchildren Brigitte ( She has three children from a previous marriage, whom Emmanuel adopted).
Throughout his career, the politician built under the strict guidance of his wife - from a simple civil servant through the position of an investment banker in the Rothschild Bank to the portfolio of the Minister of Finance in the government of Hollande. It is said that it was on the advice of Brigitte that the future candidate, implying the upcoming elections, distanced himself from Hollande, whose French policy was considered to have failed (“He betrayed me!” The president said about Macron in their hearts) and from the socialists, founding just a year before the elections centrist movement En Marche !. The new party so successfully balanced between the political Scylla of growing nationalism and the Charybdis of ineffective Republicans, which in the shortest possible time brought yesterday's outsider to the threshold of presidency. “All that I have achieved is Brigitte,” admitted Macron, having first appeared before voters after the announcement of the results of the first round. And in this case, it is easy to believe that these words are by no means a formality.
Big difference in age
It is also striking how difficult it is for the public to accept that the future French president may be happily married to a woman much older than him. So much so that in February of this year he had to laugh it off when answering a question about his supposedly novel with Mathieu Halle, who heads Radio France: “No, I don’t have a gay lobby behind me!” The endless jokes of the press about the "decorative function" of Brigitte and offensive remarks that the politician "did not find a prettier screen", met only Macron's smile and endless indifference, against the background of which the reverent and reverent attitude towards his wife became only more obvious. In the end, it is not so important what exactly happens behind the closed doors of the family residence and what the sex life of the future first couple is. This couple openly demonstrates the relationship of equal strong personalities who have managed to build an effective partnership. Brigitte herself somehow admitted with a smile that "in bed he is very good." True, in a healthy society this should not be so exaggerated.
Appearance and lifestyle
Brigitte’s appearance also became an easy target for the French, who were quite sharp in their judgments. Her pronounced tan, bright blonde and love for high heels, critics say, do not fit too well into the image of “Parisian negligence” and “French chic” that is being nurtured in the country. Her love for expensive accessories, the regular appearance on the show of Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton in the outfits of these brands can irritate the conditional Left Bank, and even cause a feeling of class dislike. However, France, in which only recently the first lady was a model and singer Carla Bruni, in this sense is not without a certain hypocrisy: she rather quickly extols and justly destroys yesterday's heroes.
Accusations of excessively bourgeois habits every time break on the categorical: "He is yesterday’s banker and behaves like a rich man - and he can afford it," Macron’s advisor answered the press indignation, which is why the couple went to celebrate this victory in La Paris’s expensive restaurant Rotonde. However, the politician never particularly portrayed the “people's candidate” (they were enough at these elections and without him - to take at least the odious Philip Putu) - but he honestly invested a lot of personal funds in his own campaign, while refusing all posts during the race - what other candidates didn't do.
She is a teacher
And it certainly played a role in the fact that a significant part of her husband’s political program is also devoted to educational reforms. Against the background of the radical proposals of his main rival Marine Le Pen - like leaving the Schengen zone, closing the borders and abandoning the euro - Macron defiantly avoids any initiatives aimed at isolating and growing nationalist sentiments. And the fact that his program, mainly built around economic and state transformations, is successfully diluted with intelligible proposals in the sphere of educating the new France, saves him from accusations of serving the interests of big money and corporations.
If Emmanuel Macron nevertheless occupies the Elysee Palace, he will become evidence that a coherent program, skillful rhetoric and a carefully constructed political image can lift you to the political Olympus, even if you haven’t held a single elective office before. And if, as the first lady, France accepts Brigitte Tronieux, who has become Madame Macron, her presence can test more than one social prejudice and prejudice - and that’s fine.
Photo: Getty Images (2)