Power pets
All the president’s dogs
Any parent will tell you, nothing has the power to instantly boost your popularity like the surprise of a dog. While it’s a universally accepted bribe against children, quite how effective it is on an increasingly cheesed-off, 67 million-strong nation is less known. Fortunately, Emmanuel Macron has decided to test that out.
On Monday, two days after the French president’s approval ratings plumbed new depths, Macron, ever the blue-sky thinker, introduced another left-field appointment to his inner circle: Nemo, a two-year-old rescue dog. Supposedly, Nemo is named after the submarine captain in Macron’s favourite book, Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, cost €250 and, as you would expect from his centrist master, is a cross: half Labrador, half griffon.
They say dogs are like their owners. According to the Kennel Club, labradors are “intelligent, keen and biddable, with a strong will to please”. Griffons, on the other hand, are “cobby, well-balanced, lively and alert”.
That all matches up, then, but how will Nemo perform?
Well, he has completed one official duty, standing next to Macron for the visit of Mahamadou Issoufou, president of Niger yesterday.
It was an accomplished start for the young stud – but we know that comes from…
Nemo isn’t the first Premier Chien at the Elysée Palace, where dogs are something of a presidential tradition. François Hollande had a labrador called Philae; Jacques Chirac had a depressed miniature white Maltese named Sumo; and Nicolas Sarkozy had Toumi, a Chihuahua, and Dumbledore and Clara, two mad labs.
Despite Donald Trump coming close to adopting a goldendoodle called Patten, the White House dog bed is empty for the first-time in 130 years. Perhaps there were enough wispy golden hairs shed in the Oval Office by the president himself at the moment, but almost all his predecessors enjoyed a canine popularity boost. Recently there was Bo and Sunny, Barack Obama’s Portuguese water dogs, George W Bush’s Scottish terrier, Barney, and Buddy, Bill Clinton’s erstwhile chocolate Labrador.
It remains to be seen whether Nemo has the ability to do the same for Macron. Remember, though: if a week is a long time in politics, just think how long it is in dog years. En Marche!