Behind glasses with smoked lenses – similar to those of Bernadette Chirac –, Brigitte Macron does not miss a word of the exchange that her husband has, on this autumn evening, with one of the couple's last supporters. Emmanuel Macron wanted, with the dissolution, “a great clarification”. It took place. Politically and personally. “The masks have fallen,” notes, not without bitterness, the first lady. The courtiers, numerous before this episode, who flocked to 55 Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, have since deserted the place. Today, there are only a handful of followers around the presidential couple.
So, a few days ago, when one of them crossed the palace gates to share “a simple whiskey” with the head of state, the Macrons quickly offered to extend the evening in their company. “Stay, stay,” insists the president. “Their isolation is felt,” comments this relative whose optimism, a bit overplayed, has reinvigorated a lonely couple over the course of a dinner. I told Emmanuel [Macron] that we should, on the contrary, savor this moment. There is an attitude to take. François Mitterrand, during the first cohabitation [entre 1986 et 1988]understood this very well. He distilled, here and there, little murderous sentences towards the Chirac government. »
She no longer holds back her blows against those who attack her husband
Around the table, the first lady, so quick to ease tensions, now no longer holds back her blows against those who do not hesitate to increase attacks against her husband. “As soon as we mentioned a hostile name, she was critical,” continues the couple’s guest. Far from lamenting – “It’s not in her temperament,” says those around her – she has sorted out her friends. “Our discussions, previously very rich, have become banal, almost tasteless,” does not understand one of those who no longer find favor in the eyes of the presidential couple. She has become closer to her daughters, Laurence and Tiphaine, whom she calls every day. And, if those close to her repeat that she is “doing very well”, the fact remains that she is busy with her schedule for fear of heights.
In Honfleur, where the presidential couple usually spends the All Saints' Day weekend, she worked on the course – “around poetry”, according to those around her – which she will give this Friday to the Le Havre students of Live , the new vocations institute for employment that she inaugurated last September in the company of Bernard Arnault, partner with the LVMH group in this professional reintegration structure. The exchange with around fifty Livers – the name she gives to the students – here aged 25 to 62, will be broadcast live to students on other campuses in France. Before that, she will have made a trip to a middle school the day before for the national day to combat school bullying, alongside the new Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet, with whom she spoke quickly during the state visit of the French couple to Morocco last week. “It’s been his fight from the start,” insists a close friend. “And she is ultra-invested,” continues another.
Faced with a president who is becoming “chiraquised”, Brigitte Macron could well become “bernadettized”…
Faced with a president who is “chiraquising”, forced to remain in the shadow cast by Matignon on the Élysée, Brigitte Macron could well “Bernadettize” herself, in the coming months, by daring to take more of the spotlight. Very often withdrawn since her arrival at the castle, and even modeling her schedule on that of her husband – “She takes advantage of her absence outside the country to organize her trips to the region,” those around her confirm to us – the first lady wants to show, today, that its voice carries, including abroad! His influence, recently, with the sisters of King Mohammed VI participated in the reconciliation of France with Morocco after three years of acute crises. “Brigitte Macron is the President of the Republic’s trump card,” judges a close friend. “His best side,” added another. Determined to continue this momentum, his office is currently preparing a trip for the first lady, alone, abroad for the month of December. A first!
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Bernadette Chirac, from whom she took over as head of the Paris Hospital Foundation in 2019, took advantage of five years of cohabitation, between 1997 and 2002, to finally establish herself alongside her husband. At the time, his combative temperament appealed. The RPR activists love it, the rest of the French adopt it. Quickly, the woman in the shadows becomes indispensable to Jacques Chirac, in his slow reconquest of power. She is acclaimed at each appearance. Its popularity is reaching new heights. With more than 300,000 copies sold, his first book of interviews with Patrick de Carolis, “Conversation”, was a huge success in bookstores (in 2001). Which, later, made him say to academician Alain Decaux: “It was I who got my husband elected” against Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2002.
Although she has received several proposals, Brigitte Macron is still reluctant to start writing a book. “She systematically refuses the projects that we submit to her – series, film or documentary included,” explains those around her. “She is resolutely in the present” we are told, even if several close friends still tell us that she thinks “a lot about post-2027”, her husband not being able to represent himself. “She put her life at the service of her husband's success,” analyzes a close friend of the couple, “without hesitating sometimes to cover up her mistakes! It will then be up to him, once the five-year term is over, to return the favor. » Will he do it? In the meantime, behind the scenes, she does not hesitate to assert herself more, even though she was letting things slide. Recently, when the head of state was late in showing up for dinner with her as they usually do around 10 p.m., she said to him: “If you don't come now, you can sleep on the sofa. » A frankness which is reminiscent of that… of Bernadette Chirac.
France
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