Candidate’s wife uses U.S.-style campaign tactics
PARIS — In a break with French tradition, centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has created an inseparable team with his wife Brigitte, who is fierily campaigning by his side, a move more often seen on American political stages than in France.
The 39-year-old independent maverick is increasingly considered the front runner in France’s two-round April 23-May 7 presidential election. Polls suggest Macron could win over far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is expected to score high after conservative candidate Francois Fillon lost ground amid corruption allegations.
Macron, a former French economy minister, is campaigning on pro-free market, pro-European views. And unlike many French politicians who prefer to keep their private life private, he is publicly appearing with his wife.
Brigitte Trogneux, 63, attends her husband’s rallies and public events and Macron doesn’t hide that she is also his close political adviser. She is his former high school theater teacher, 24 years his senior.
France’s potential next first lady recently joined Macron on a campaign stage, kissing him and thanking the crowd in a Paris theater.
If elected, “she will then have this role, this place,” Macron declared. “Not behind, not hidden . ... She will be by my side.”
Macron and Trogneux have the same difference in age as President Trump, 70, and his wife Melania, 46 —but the rarity of a much younger husband has drawn lots of attention. Some observers say it may boost Macron’s image as a modern, outspoken and unconventional new figure in the French politics.
Macron met Trogneux when he was 17 and she taught French literature in his high school in his hometown of Amiens. A married mother of three at the time, she ran the theater club that he belonged to. A few years later, she divorced and joined Macron in Paris, where he completed his studies at the National School of Administration, one of France’s most prestigious schools, in 2004.
In a video of their 2007 wedding, broadcast by French television, Macron thanked his wife’s children for accepting him. He said they may not be “a quite normal couple — even if I don’t like that adjective much — but a couple that exists.”
French gossip magazines scrutinize — and generally praise — Trogneux’s cuttingedge style, which includes miniskirts, jeans and leather trousers.