France: Macron to abandon plans for official first lady
French President Emmanuel Macron is
to abandon plans to create an official role of first lady for his wife
Brigitte, according to reports.
During his campaign, Mr Macron had said he wanted to create "a real status" for his wife.
But an online petition against the move has gained almost 290,000 signatures.
French
media report that Brigitte Macron's position will be clarified in the
coming days, but that the constitution will not be altered.
In a
TV interview during is presidential campaign, Mr Macron said that, if
elected, he would want the role of first lady to be "defined".
"She [Brigitte Macron] will have a say on what she wants to be," he told TF1 in April.
The
French constitution gives no official status to a president's spouse,
although they are typically allocated an office in the Elysée Palace, an
assistant or two, and security guards.
Part of Mr Macron's campaign was based on stamping out nepotism in French politics after his conservative rival Francois Fillon was investigated over controversial payments to his wife.
Mr Macron said he would ban politicians from employing relatives in response to the public outcry over the scandal.
Calls of hypocrisy
French politician Thierry Mariana was one of several to publicly criticise the new French president for the move.
"Do as I say, not as I do," he said in a tweet
last month. An ally of Mr Fillon, he linked to an article about
speculation over Mrs Macron receiving official status and a budget.
Government
spokesman Cristoph Castaner posted several tweets on Monday evening
suggesting Mrs Macron's role would be clarified but no change to the
constitution would be made.
Aucune modification de la Constitution, aucun moyen nouveau, aucune rémunération pour #BrigitteMacron, stop à l'hypocrisie !— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) August 7, 2017
The tweet translates as: "No modification of the constitution, no new
funding, no salary for #BrigitteMacron. Stop the hypocrisy!"
Critics
have suggested Mr Macron could be attempting to use his wife to improve
his approval rating after a significant slump in some polls.
Others
have said the French President was attempting to copy the US model,
however, the American role of first lady is also unofficial.
BBC
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