France backs away from first lady plans
Hundreds of thousands sign petition opposing official role for president’s spouse
PARIS— Proposals to make official the role of France’s first lady ran aground after a public outcry over suggestions by the French president that it was time to consider enshrining in law the role of presidential spouse.
Although French President Emmanuel Macron had yet to specify what role he envisioned, a petition against any official recognition of the first lady began circulating on the internet three weeks ago. By the end of Tuesday, nearly 300,000 people had signed it and, with Macron’s popularity ebbing somewhat, the government backed away from proposing statutory changes and sought to calm the rising controversy.
There will not be “any modification to the constitution, any new resources nor any remuneration” for Macron’s wife, Brigitte Macron, a government spokesperson, Christophe Castaner, said on Twitter Tuesday.
The main goal, Castaner said, was to make clear that “she plays a role, she has responsibilities.” “We want to be transparent.” On the campaign trail, Macron had gone considerably further, saying that he would like to see a statute that gave a legal framework to the work of the president’s spouse.
This summer, however, was not a good time to push ahead on the pro- ject. The French Parliament is working on an ethics law for politicians that would, among other things, ban the hiring of relatives, because some politicians have used the practice to augment their own incomes.
Macron’s goal was to modernize the presidential system, but many people appear to have construed his efforts, which have included having an internal committee discuss different approaches, as a favour to his wife.
Ahead of voting on “a decree forbidding lawmakers to hire a family member, we cannot in all decency support a statute specifically for the wife of President Macron,” said Thierry Paul Valette, the author of the popular online petition.
It could also be costly, Valette said. Giving her an official position might enable her to claim more of the budget and hire “numerous collaborators, drivers, security and take other advantages,” he said.
The petition’s resonance hardly came as a surprise to pollsters. One 2016 poll by IFOP, a major French pollster, found that 69 per cent of those surveyed did not want an official role for the first lady, said Jérôme Fourquet, the director of opinion polling for the organization.