If, as it has been extensively predicted, 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron steps into the Élysée Palace in less than two weeks’ time, he will be France’s youngest president since Napoleon. But that’s not what’s piqued the interest of the world press. Emmanuel’s greatest supporter since he was a schoolboy has been his wife, who was also his “former teacher”, Brigitte Trogneux — aged 64 is now also a grandmother of seven.
He was a 15-year-old student, while she was a 40-year-old Latin, French and theatre teacher, who was a married mother of three.
They worked together on rewriting some scenes from a play. At the age of 17, he told her ‘Whatever you do, I will marry you!’ and in her own words, “Little by little, I was won over by his intelligence”. This might read like a paragraph from a romantic novel but it is true. And in 2007, Emmanuel Macron, married Brigitte Trogneux.
France has a long and an open history when it comes to Presidents and their spouses. Former President François Mitter and had an affair for 32 years, which produced an illegitimate daughter (and possibly a son from another relationship, too), but such matters were written about in French newspapers only after his death. Current President François Hollande parted ways with his partner and de facto First Lady, Valerie Trierweiler, in 2014 after it was revealed that he had also been having an affair with Julie Gayet, an actress 18 years his junior.
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter and Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee too feels that the times are changing. “It is a great example of breaking the stereotype. He has a strong, powerful woman by his side as his loyal partner and that’s what matters. A powerful man has been defined by his choice of a younger partner, but Emmanuel and Brigitte are the faces of the modern day. As they say, love defies every stereotype.”
This case also is a clear indicator that people or voters are really liberated and do not focus on what the taste of their leader’s partner or age is. Shaina NC, national BJP spokesperson, says, “One’s personal space should not be greatly associated with their work. I agree that India is a far more conservative country. But we as a society, need to understand that any leader needs to be judged only by his or her work and not by the choice of their partner.”
Actor turned politician Vani Tripathi Tikoo says, “You will come across a lot of people in normal public life getting attracted to or hitched to a person who may be way older than them. And I strongly think that it has nothing to do with liberalism. Emmanuel Macron is termed as “neither left or right-winger. He is also one of the youngest French leaders in modern history and he is turning a page in French political history and luckily he has a beautiful partner by his side. And if he does become the President, I am sure that he will derive a lot from his wife who is much senior to him.”
As far as India is concerned, she shares, “I think, the Indian political scenario is also catching up to a lot of new experiences. We have politicians who have gotten married more than once, gotten married to people across party lines political ideologies, then we also have politicians who have been divorced and so on. Topics like separation and divorce were a complete taboo until now. But now we have seen politicians opening about it. That itself is a big change.”
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The next French President is 39 years old. But that is not the news. He is married to a 64 year-old, that is still not the news. His wife was his class teacher 24 years ago... not still the news. He fell in love with his class teacher when he was 15...she was “happily married” with 3 kids.
They got married in 2007. Next month he is going to be sworn-in as the President of France six months to his 40th birthday while his wife who has three adult kids and seven grandchildren (her first child is two years older than her husband while her second child, the former classmate is the same age as him).
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