Brigitte Marie-Claude Macron (French: [bʁiʒit maʁi klod makʁɔ̃]; née Trogneux [tʁɔɲø], previously Auzière [ozjɛːʁ]; born 13 April 1953) is a French former teacher known for being the wife of Emmanuel Macron, the current president of France and co-prince of Andorra.[1][2]
Early life
Brigitte Macron was born Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux in Amiens, France. She is the youngest of six children[3] of Simone (née Pujol; 1910–1998) and Jean Trogneux (1909–1994), the owners of the five-generation Chocolaterie Trogneux,[4] founded in 1872 in Amiens.[5] The company, now known as Jean Trogneux,[6] is run by her nephew, Jean-Alexandre Trogneux.[4]
Career
Macron, at the time Brigitte Auzière, taught literature at the Collège Lucie-Berger in Strasbourg in the 1980s.[7] By the 1990s, she was teaching French and Latin at Lycée la Providence, a Jesuit high school in Amiens. From 2007 to 2015, she taught at Lycée Saint-Louis de Gonzague,[8] in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, one of the most prestigious French private schools. At that institution, she was the French teacher of Frédéric and Jean Arnault, sons of French luxury business tycoon Bernard Arnault.[9]
It was at the after-school drama club of Lycée la Providence where she and Emmanuel Macron first met.[10] She was in charge of the after-school theater club he attended when he was 15 alongside her own daughter Laurence who was in his class.[11] Their relationship has attracted controversy, as she is his senior by close to 25 years, and he was a minor; Macron has described it as "a love often clandestine, often hidden, misunderstood by many before imposing itself".[12]
Politics
French president
Emmanuel Macron kisses Brigitte's hand during a state visit at the
White House with U.S. president
Donald Trump and
Melania Trump in April 2018.
In 1989, Brigitte Macron (then Auzière) unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the city council of Truchtersheim.[7] It was the only time she ran for office.[7]
In 2017, Brigitte Macron played an active role in her husband's presidential campaign; a top adviser was quoted as saying that "her presence is essential for him".[13] During his campaign, Emmanuel Macron stated that upon his winning of the French presidency, his wife would "have the role that she always had, she will not be hidden".[14]
He proposed creating an official "first lady" (première dame) title (as the spouse of the French president currently holds no official title) coming with their own staff, office and a personally allocated budget for their activities.[15] Following Macron's election as president and his previously outspoken stance against nepotism,[16] a petition against his proposal gathered more than 275,000 signatures, and the French government announced that Brigitte Macron would not hold the official title of "first lady" and would not be allocated an official budget.[17] In an interview with French magazine Elle, she stated that a soon-to-be published transparency charter would clarify her "role and accompanying resources", including the composition and size of her staff. This charter was published the following Friday.[18]
Public image
The Macron couple and the Trump couple at the
2019 G7
Brigitte Macron has been the subject of glowing articles in the Daily Mail, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and The Observer.[19] Her style of dress at international meetings has often been commented upon.[20] For its part, the Financial Times described her style as similar to that of an "Essex girl".[21] Close to Bernard Arnault's family, she was dressed for free by Louis Vuitton during her official outings, which created controversy.[22][23]
Complaints
In March 2018, the office of the Élysée Palace filed a complaint for identity theft after discovering that Brigitte Macron's name was being used to obtain preferential treatment in luxury establishments through a false email address. According to the office, the complaint was related to "a very clear attempt to harm [Brigitte Macron's] reputation".[24] In October 2021, a 35-year-old man who claimed to be Brigitte Macron's nephew was sentenced to 30 months in prison, 18 of which were suspended, for identity theft, attempted fraud, and fraud as a repeat offender.[25]
Yellow Vest slogan (“Well, give them biofuel!”) targeting Brigitte Macron, in reference to a statement attributed to
Marie-Antoinette
In August 2020, during the presidential couple's vacation at the Fort de Brégançon, yellow vest protesters gathered on a nearby beach and launched several inflatable lobsters, one of which bore insults directed at the "First Lady". On September 30, before the Toulon Criminal Court, one of the protesters was tried for "public insult to the President of the Republic" and "public insult and defamation of individual(s)". According to Var-Matin, the case was dismissed due to a procedural defect. Lawyer Juan Branco argued that an employee of the Élysée Palace filed the complaint without a mandate and in the absence of Brigitte Macron's signature, leading the court to accept the nullity plea based on the provisions of the law of July 29, 1881, on freedom of the press.[26][27]
On August 22, 2018, Thierry-Paul Valette filed a complaint against Brigitte Macron[28] at the Lisieux police station as part of the transparency charter. The grounds for the complaint were the offenses of passive influence peddling, passive corruption, and complicity in a passive conflict of interest by a person charged with a public service mission. The case was closed without further action in August 2019.[29]
Brigitte Macron's image has also been illegally exploited by several scammers online, who used it to sell and promote anti-wrinkle creams, falsely claiming she was the muse or creator of these products.[30]
Personal life
On 22 June 1974, Brigitte married banker André-Louis Auzière (1951–2019),[31][32] with whom she had three children (Sébastien, born 1975; Laurence, born 1977; and Tiphaine, born 1984).[8] They resided in Truchtersheim until 1991, when they moved to Amiens.[7] In 1993, at the age of 39, she met the 15-year-old Emmanuel Macron in La Providence High School,[33][34] where she was a teacher and he was a student and a classmate of her daughter.[35] Brigitte divorced Auzière in January 2006 and married Macron on 20 October 2007.[36][37]
Honours
Foreign honours
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