First ladies’ role little-defined around the world
paris — French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to create a “real status” for first lady Brigitte Macron have thrown a spotlight on the role of her counterparts around the world.
In some cases first ladies have played influential behind-the-scenes roles, and in some cases have even come to power.
With the exception of the monarchy, the partners of European heads of state and government, often discreet, have no special status and some continue to work.
In Britain, where the monarchy plays an important role in representing the country, Prime Minister Theresa May’s banker husband has kept his job, as did the wives of David Cameron and Tony Blair before him. The partner of Belgian prime minister Charles Michel, Amelie Derbaudrenghien, who has no official status and refuses the role of first lady, continuing her work in public administration.
Another partner known for his low-key role, the media-shy husband of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, scientist Joachim Sauer, is nicknamed the “phantom of the opera”.
However, the spouse of the German president traditionally leaves her job in order to take on the honorary role of first lady.
The wife of the current president, Elke Buedenbender, raised eyebrows when she announced last March that she was giving up her job as a judge after her husband Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the new head of state. “Pay the first lady for her work, or abolish the position,” an editorial in the centre-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said at the time.
In Slovenia, the president’s “partner” receives a monthly remuneration for protocol expenses, up to 15 per cent of the president’s salary.
She or he also gets a paid absence from employment for protocole purposes, a job suspension during the president’s mandate and the right to resume it once the partner leaves office. In reality, apart in some cases from charity work, partners mainly take part in protocol during diplomatic meetings and take part in overseas visits. —