In ancient France, the has king's love life has so much dedication that he had not just a Queen but also a semi-official mistress (the Maitresse-en-titre), with a small salary and her own apartment.
Now living in a less romantic age, the French seem disinclined even to allow the wife of the President Emmanuel Macron an Official role as First Lady.
The President wants his wife Brigitte, who he met as a child to take on a title which does not currently exist in France.
But an online petition signed at the time of writing by almost 200,000 people takes issue with the proposals.
While Macron has
pledged that the position will not be paid from public funds, the petition
claims that it will: “There is no reason for the wife of the head of state to
get a budget out of public funds,” its creator Thierry Paul Valette writes.
He also argues that such a change to French public life should
not just be imposed from the top down but decided by a referendum. “It is up to
the people of France to choose their representation and no one else,”
Valette said.
“Emmanuel Macron, although president, can not decide everything
by himself,” he added. “Many voted for him just to block the Front National and
not because they endorsed his program.”
And Valette points out that employing family members is
currently a hot issue in France. During the election campaign the center-right
candidate Francois Fillon was badly damaged by a scandal involving his
employment of his wife and children as parliamentary assistants.
Macron has since resolved to ban lawmakers from employing their
spouses. “In a period of moralization in French politics, when a decree was
passed prohibiting deputies from employing a member of their family,” Valette
writes, “we can not decently endorse the initiative of a specific statute to
the wife of President Macron.”
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Valette says the petition will be sent directly to Macron.
“When
you’re elected president of the Republic, you live with someone, you give your
days and nights, you give your public life and your private life,” Macron strongly argued in favor of the position. As reported by French broadcaster TF1 in May.
“So the person who lives with you must have a role and be
recognized in that role.”
(credits yahoo.com, edited by Increase Chisom)
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