French First Lady Brigitte Macron celebrates her 70th birthday today under strict security measures – due to violent protests against President Emmanuel Macron.
A source close to Madame Macron said she was “concerned about her own safety and that of her husband” and rarely left the Elysée Palace in Paris.
Thousands are expected on the streets of the capital on Thursday to campaign against Macron, who is raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.
There will also be nationwide strikes, with flight, train and bus visitors to the country facing cancellations and delays.
Among the key workers who have stopped working are garbage collectors who have been piling up rubbish heaps in major cities and towns, including Paris.
French first lady Brigitte Macron (pictured April 12) celebrates her 70th birthday today amid tight security – amid violent protests against President Emmanuel Macron
It is exactly one month since mr. Macron announced his major pension reform and said he would use a presidential decree to force them into the code.
France’s constitutional court will deliver a verdict on Friday on the legality of Mr. Adding to today’s tension is Macron’s new pension law.
Madame Macron has seen protesters try to get close to Mr Macron – who is 25 years younger than at 45 – in recent days, including during a visit to the Netherlands, where one of them was thrown to the ground when he walked up to the president . .
The incident happened when Macron arrived at the University of Amsterdam.
The man was heard shouting: “We’re here! We’re here!” when he burst into a crowd surrounding the French president before security forces arrested him.
Two people were arrested.
It comes after a mob set fire to La Rotonde – Macron’s favorite restaurant in Paris – during a march a week ago.
Around 5,000 police officers will be on the streets of the capital today as similar protests are planned across the country.
“Brigitte is extremely worried about what is going on,” said the Paris source.
She walked her husband in the local parks and took long walks along the Seine with their dog Nemo.
“It is now impossible, because she must be carefully guarded in the Elysée Palace, which is guarded day and night.”
In an interview earlier this year, Madame Macron said: ‘When I turn 70, you will hear it, I’m sure. I won’t read anything that day.”
An Elysee source confirmed that for her historic birthday – May 13,
The Macrons married in 2007 after a long relationship that began when the future first lady young Emmanuelle was studying drama at his school in Amiens, northeastern France.
She later divorced her first husband, with whom she had three children, to marry Mr Macron.
Brigitte, who has three children from her previous marriage, has been remembering the 25-year age difference between her and her husband for decades.
Their marriage caused a sensation when Emmanuel Macron became famous – first as a minister, then as a 2016 presidential candidate – and many questioned whether such an unlikely couple could be real.
While their love affair has since won over skeptics, public interest in the norm-breaking first couple – and hints of Brigitte’s age – never ceases to wane.
French First Lady Brigitte Macron (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron receive a guard of honor as they meet with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema (not seen) during a wreath-laying ceremony on March 11.
La Rotonde restaurant – said to be Macron’s favorite in Paris – burns down after it was attacked by protesters on the 11th day of action after the government pushed a pension reform without a vote by Parliament in Paris on April 6, 2023.
Riot police fire tear gas at education workers during a protest demanding a bigger budget for the sector and opposing a new education plan by Bolivian President Luis Arce’s government on April 12, 2023 in La Paz.
“Wait until April 13, 2023 and I’ll be 70,” she told women’s lifestyle magazine S in January, with thinly veiled fears about the coming flurry of news reports about her age and date of birth. “You’ll hear about it, I’m sure.”
She told the magazine that she “never promoted our couple: it exists, but you can’t explain it. It’s obviously easier to be in the same age group,” she added.
Her office refused to say what she had planned for her historic birthday when approached by a new agency from AFP.
She once spoke of the risk of appearing as a decorative “flower vase” at the staged photo ops and ceremonial duties of such events.
Always a reluctant political wife, she said she discouraged her husband from even going into public life and remained especially lukewarm about his bid for a second term last April.
During anti-Macron protests in 2018 by so-called “yellow vest” protesters, the literature and theater lover was personally attacked and insulted by former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and his cabinet.
“Did you see my face on re-election night?” She recently told the magazine Le Point, referring to her tough attitude when her husband celebrated another five years in power.
When not representing France abroad, she was involved in charitable causes at home, supported by a small team operating from its own premises in the Presidential Palace.
Most of her campaign themes are related to her earlier career as a teacher – bullying in schools, childhood autism, mental health and social media – but they are also classic choices.
“She is very traditional in her approach to her activities,” Robert Schneider, author of a French-language book on presidential wives, First Ladies, told AFP.
Brigitte was born into a wealthy provincial family – her father owned a chocolate shop in her hometown of Amiens.
“There were two sides to her in the beginning: a free woman who broke with societal conventions (through her marriage) … right,” Schneider added.
“Today the second side of her dominates.”
There is endless speculation in France about her influence on politics.
She is often used to convey messages from advisers and allies to her husband and serves as a sounding board for his ideas.
French First Lady Brigitte Macron and Queen Maxima visit the Keukenhof of the Netherlands during a French state visit to the country
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a wreath-laying ceremony accompanied by First Lady Brigitte Macron on April 11, 2023 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
As his former acting teacher, Brigitte also takes a keen interest in Macron’s public speaking and speeches, coaching him in speaking and recitation.
“I never grabbed him to say do this or do that,” she told the newspaper Le Monde in 2021. “But he always asks me what I think like he does with (chief of staff) Alexis Kohler. Then he does what he wants.’
Talkative, outgoing and sociable by nature, Brigitte struggles to control her tendency to be open and direct in public.
“I pay much more attention to what I say … because it’s not just about me,” she told TF1 in January. “I want much more freedom of expression.”
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Elizabeth Cabrera is an author and journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a talent for staying up-to-date on the latest news and trends, Elizabeth is dedicated to delivering informative and engaging articles that keep readers informed on the latest developments.
