Five Times The French President Emmanuel Macron Hit The Headlines

Hanima Anand |Oct 27, 2020

Being the youngest President in French history, Emmanuel Macron is sometimes considered ‘eccentric’ for his one-of-a-kind lifestyle. See the five times he made people shocked with his decisions!

Emmanuel Macron, the French President, is going viral for his remarks on a recent incident related to the assassination of a school teacher. However, this is not the first time his name hit the headlines for what he dared to do. Besides Emmanuel Macron wife age difference, there were four other occasions when this man shook the world for his actions.

Emmanuel Macron And PM Modi
Emmanuel Macron (left) and his wife in a visit to Indian's PM Narendra Modi.

Emmanuel Macron wife age difference & a legendary love story

Most people are not aware of Emmanuel Macron wife until he became President in 2017. However, Emmanuel already got married a decade earlier and has no children till date.

Emmanuel Macron wife is 24 years older than him. He was born on December 21, 1977 while his wife, Brigitte Macron, was born on April 13, 1953.

Emmanuel Macron Wife Age Difference
The President got married to his 24-year-senior wife in 2007.

Emmanuel Macron wife story began when he was a 15-year-old teenager. He met Brigitte, who was then his teacher, at a theatre workshop at La Providence High School in Amiens, France. At that time, Brigitte was still in her previous marriage and mother to three children.

Though Brigitte was a quarter older than him and one of her children was even his friend, Macron fell in love with Brigitte after attending her literature classes. However, it was not a love at first sight as the French President used to describe his love story as ‘a love often clandestine, often hidden, misunderstood by many before imposing itself.’

When they first met, Emmanuel Macron wife was 39 and he was 15. It’s not until he clocked his 18th birthday that they officially became a couple.

Knowing the truth, his parents strongly opposed the relationship and insisted on sending him to Paris to finish his schooling. They assumed that his youth made this love inappropriate.

Emmanuel Macron And Wife
The couple faced lots of difficulties and disapproval on the first days of their relationship.

Despite the disapproval from his family, Emmanuel Macron maintained contact with his girlfriend then. Finally, they reunited after his graduation. Macron got married to his wife in 2007. The couple hasn’t had any child to date.

During Emmanuel Macron’s presidential run in 2017, Brigitte played an important role in supporting her husband as well as developing his public speaking skills. Her devotion to his career path along with their romantic gestures towards each other gradually clears all prejudices against Emmanuel Macron wife age difference.

Emmanuel Macron Wife Daughter
Brigitte's youngest daughter was only 9 when seeing her mom falling in love with the 15-yr Macron.

Emmanuel Macron formed his own political party En Marche

Before running for French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron caught huge attention from mass media when he founded his own political party named En Marche.

In fact, Macron was working as the Minister of Economy and Industry for the government of President François Hollande at that time. However, after his Macron Law proposal was refused, he expressed his desire to leave the position.

Though Hollande had successfully persuaded Marcon to stay, the young Minister decided to establish an independent political party amid tensions with the current government. On 6 April 2016, Macron announced his En marche, a progressive, liberal party. The formation of En marche gathered huge media coverage as he made quite a number of speech before the event.

Emmanuel Macron En Marche
Macron's forming En Marche was seen as a disloyalty to Hollande's government at that time.

In August 2016, Macron finally resigned from Minister of Economy and Industry ahead of the 2017 French presidential election to promote his En marche movement. Speculations are rife that he wanted to run for the president position while Hollande felt he was ‘betrayed.’

The youngest President in French history

Three months after his resignation, Emmanuel Macron officially declared his candidacy for the French presidential election. He promised to unblock France with a democratic revolution.

Macron’s book titled Révolution during his campaign quickly ranked among best-sellers in France in 2016. He also raised 3.7 million euros for his run, without public funding because his En marche hasn’t registered a political party yet.

On 7 May 2017, Emmanuel Macron was announced the French President with 66.1% of the vote, leaving his competitor Marine Le Pen far behind. He then resigned from president of En marche.

Emmanuel Macron Winning Presidency
Macron kissing his wife the moment he won Presidency in 2017

When officially becoming the President of France, Emmanuel Macron was just 39 years old. He is the youngest President in French history, also listed in the youngest Presidents list in the world.

Emmanuel Macron proposed his wife the First Lady role

Though French residents don’t have any problem with Emmanuel Macron wife, they used to protest against his plan to give her a role in the government.

After he assumed office in 2017, Macron had a proposal for giving his wife an official status. Accordingly, Brigitte would be the French First Lady. She would be given an office, security guards, assisting staff as well as budget from public funding to fulfill her role.

This encountered extreme protests from the public who believed their President went against his democracy and transparency promise during his campaign. Once condemning the so-called hypocrisy in the previous government, Emmanuel Macron made the same mistake when claiming the First Lady privileges for his wife.

Emmanuel Macron Wife As First Lady
Emmanuel wanted to give his wife a title as in the US.

After receiving the petition from 150,000 people across France, The President resorted to cancel his proposal.

Emmanuel Macron’s remark on the French teacher’s assassination

The latest controversy surrounding Emmanuel Macron is his tweet about a recent incident, the assassination of a school teacher.

To be specific, a French teacher named Samuel Paty had shown his students some controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during the history class. However, this went against the Islamic religion which prohibits any drawing or illustration of Allah and Muhammad. Samuel Paty was later beheaded by an Islamic radical.

Enraged by the brutal crime of the murderer, President Macron wrote to his Twitter account, in English and Arabic that “We will not give in, ever.” Although he then affirmed “We respect all difference in a spirit of peace,” Islamic communities believe the French President is targeting them in his post.

Turkey and Pakistan are the first countries to witness the opposition of France with #boycottFrenchproducts campaigns. The wave is spreading to other countries of Islamic religion as well.

The French ambassador in Turkey was also called back to France after the protest broke out. Meanwhile, Macron’s government is trying to resolve any misunderstanding with Muslims and any religious groups involved.

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