Why can’t the French First Lady stand on her own two feet?

BrIGItte Macron refuses to obey protocol and stand behind the french president at official events, telling an interviewer that she considers her role to be ‘beside, not behind’ her husband emmanuel.

there’s a 25-year age gap between Brigitte, right, and her husband but she makes it sound like a century. Whether it’s standing beside or behind him, the habit of women accompanying their democratically elected spouses to public events is a throwback to an era when women were decorative appendages to powerful men.

Brigitte would appear a lot more modern if she withdrew from most official events and left her husband to his own devices. Both angela Merkel and theresa May cope just fine without their hubbies hovering around them.