Emmanuel Macron's marriage proves politics is different in France

From Brongersma
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Here's the simple love story of 15 year-old boy meets much older drama teacher in high school and eventually falls in love. His parents can't keep them apart, so years later the mother of three eventually divorces her husband and marries her former student. They flourish and then he runs for president when he's 39 and she's 64. And he wins. It's much sweeter as a love story when you tell it as part of the presidential campaign than say, when the boy is in high school and it could, depending on when the love blossoms, be the stuff of a criminal case in the US rather than a candidate's biography.

We don't exactly know, by the way, when Emanuel Macron's love blossomed with his wife Brigitte. Suffice it to say his parents told her to stay away until he was 18 and shipped him off to Paris. Now, years later, they're still together and he will become the next president of France after a run-off election with conservative Marine Le Pen Sunday. Can you imagine a politician with a personal life like Macron succeeding in the US? Maybe or maybe not. In France, it's met with a shrug.

source: Article 'Emmanuel Macron's marriage proves politics is different in France' by Z. Byron Wolf; edition.cnn.com/2017/05/06/politics/emmanuel-macron-wife-marriage-france/index.html; CNN; 7 May 2017