‘They’re jealous,’ says daughter of Brigitte Macron as the barbs flow
MISOGYNISTIC attacks on Brigitte Macron, France’s first lady-to-be, are down to “jealousy”, her youngest daughter said yesterday.
Tiphaine Auzière, 32, made an impassioned defence of her mother as she launched her own political career as deputy to a parliamentary candidate for president-elect Emmanuel Macron’s new party.
Her comments came after Mrs Macron, 64, who is 24 years older than her husband, endured an outpouring of sexist and ageist abuse in recent weeks.
Speaking to BFMTV, Ms Auzière, a lawyer and married mother of two, said: “I don’t want to give credence to people who do this kind of thing.”
She added: “I find it abhorrent in France in the 21st century such attacks, which would not be carried out against a male politician or a male companion of a female politician. There’s a lot of jealousy.”
Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine, prompted widespread criticism this week for publishing a front page showing Mr Macron touching the belly of his apparently heavily pregnant wife with the caption: “He’s going to perform miracles.”
Earlier this week, Jacques Domergue, a Right-wing councillor in Montpellier, also sparked outrage by writing: “We have a new president who is a younger model of his predecessor. Except the predecessor lived with a woman his daughter’s age and the newcomer with a woman his mother’s age.”
Before his election, Mr Macron addressed treatment of their unorthodox relationship, telling Le Parisien that his wife was the victim of “everyday misogyny”.
“If I were 20 years older than my wife, nobody would have thought for a single second that I couldn’t be an intimate partner,” he said. “It’s because she is 20 years older than me that lots of people say, ‘This relationship can’t be tenable, it can’t be possible’.”
Mr Macron has promised his wife a staff, a budget and an official status, but no salary.
Ms Auzière is the youngest of Mrs Macron’s three children. An active election campaigner for her stepfather, she was by his side last Sunday along with her mother at the Louvre to celebrate his victory against Marine Le Pen.
Her colleagues brushed off local complaints that her local political role was proof of “nepotism”, saying she was a symbol of “youth, dynamism and hope”.
She will be number two in the northern Pas-de-calais to Thibault Guilluy, a local businessman and one of 428 parliamentary candidates for Mr Macron’s La République en Marche (Republic on the Move) party.
Half are women and 52 per cent are political novices. They include a retired female bullfighter and fighter pilot, as well as a star mathematician, but also 24 currently serving Socialist MPS.