Macron lashes out at criticism of his age difference with his wife

the victory of Emmanuel Macronelected president of france on May 7th, it is like the precocious apotheosis of a life. From straight-A student to millionaire banker. From a novice Minister of Economy to the leader of the sixth largest economy in the world.

At 39 years old, he is the youngest person to assume power in the country since Napoleon (who was 35 when he took power). From the election to the inauguration, six days later, he attended to numerous commitments and granted several interviews. Only one subject made him lose his temper – elegantly, by the way: the hints about the 25 year difference between him and his wiferetired teacher Brigitte Macron (exactly the same as between Donald and Melania Trump).

The French couple guarantees that they are well used to the curiosity it provokes. But it has taken on exaggerated proportions since the confirmation that he would contest the second round of the French elections with the candidate of the far-right party, Marine Le Pen🇧🇷

vulgar jokes and rumors that Macron would lead a parallel life circulated freely. “If I was the eldest, nobody would have thought for a second that we couldn’t be intimate partners,” he told the newspaper. Le Parisien🇧🇷 For Macron, these are clear displays of misogyny.

intellectual attraction

Brigitte Auzière was a professor of literature and director of theater at the Jesuit school in Amiens, the city where they were both born, 120 kilometers north of Paris. She had been married for 20 years to banker André-Louis Auzière (now aged 66) and mother of Sèbastien, Laurance and Tiphaine (now aged 42, 40 and 33, respectively). It was Laurence who drew the mother’s attention to a classmate: “There’s a boy in my class who is impressive. A genius. He knows everything”. The daughter was talking about Emmanuel, then 15 years old.

Read too: Meet Justin Trudeau, the man who is challenging the status quo

The teacher and the student met during the assembly of Jacques and His Master, the only play by Czech writer Milan Kundera. Brigitte was enchanted by his intelligence. The reciprocal was immediate. To get closer, the boy asked for help in an adaptation of the text of The Art of Comedyby Eduardo Filippo.

“That made us meet every Friday and created an incredible closeness. He wasn’t like other boys. But at that point, no one would assume that our relationship would turn into a love story.” paris-match in 2016. “Stealthily things happened and I fell in love. The intellectual bond brought us closer. Then a lasting passion arose”, wrote the current president in his book revolutionfrom 2016.

Accustomed to getting along better with teachers than with his peers, Macron spent more and more time with his teacher. They would go out together for long walks on the banks of the Somme River, which cuts through the city. “We had an adult-to-adult relationship,” she recalls. Despite speaking openly about the novel today, there is a question that Brigitte refuses to answer: “Nobody will ever know exactly at what moment our history turned into a love story🇧🇷 This only belongs to us. It’s our secret”.

At 17, Emmanuel thought it was time to tell his father, neurologist Jean-Michel Macron, and his mother, pediatrician Françoise Nogués (now divorced), what he was feeling for Brigitte.

The couple of doctors were scared: they thought their son was flirting with Laurence, the teacher’s daughter. The first reaction was to be asked to wait until he turned 18. After a while, they got real: who can pause a feeling? “Of course, at that time, we couldn’t say: ‘It’s great that Emmanuel found Brigitte’”, Françoise reported in an interview with French journalist Anne Fulda for the book she released this year about the president-elect, Emmanuel Macron, Un Jeune Homme Si Parfait (in free translation, “Emmanuel Macron, a perfect young man”).

In an attempt to separate the two and make their son forget his passion, his parents sent Emmanuel to Paris, where he would finish high school at Lyceum Henry IV. Before leaving, however, he declared to his beloved: “I will, but I will come back to marry you”🇧🇷 According to Fulda’s book, the parents even looked for Brigitte and asked her to stay away from their son. “I can’t promise anything,” she reportedly replied. Her mother would still have appealed: “You have your life. With you, he will not be able to have children.”

Read too: 7 speeches by powerful women to inspire

The father had a more practical view of things: “I thought he would get over it. My concern was that he would finish his studies and not let it all go to waste.” Today, everyone gets along. “I see her as my friend, not my daughter-in-law,” said the pediatrician.

The telephone was the best friend of lovers, separated by distance and circumstances. To this day, they don’t like to talk about that period: there are too many pains to remember. “I had to fight to lead my personal and professional life as I wish,” he told Fulda. Some time later, already separated, Brigitte also moved to Paris. Emmanuel graduated in philosophy, public policy and administration and entered the financial market. Soon he was hired by the investment area of ​​Banco Rothschild.

In 2004, the two started living together – but they only got married on October 20, 2007, a year after her divorce was finally signed. The ceremony, held at the Paris City Hall, was followed by a party. After they cut the croque-en-bouche (the traditional French wedding cake, made with a pile of stuffed profiteroles), to the sound of the Wedding March, Macron gave a speech. “Each of you has witnessed, over the past 13 years, what we have lived through. And because they accepted us, we got here today. We’re not a normal couple, even if I don’t like that word. Thank you for accepting us and loving us.”

From Wife to First Lady

At the time of the wedding, Macron was already a partner at Rothschild, where he remained until 2012. He left the private sector with a full bank account to join the team of the then candidate for the Presidency of France, Francois Hollandeas Deputy Secretary General.

Two years later, he resigned from the post. But it didn’t even take a month for Hollande to invite him to be Minister of Economy, Industry and Finance🇧🇷 Emmanuel took the stand. His plans, however, were bolder. In April 2016, he founded the progressive party En Marche!. Four months later, he would leave the government to launch himself, last November, as a presidential candidate.

During her husband’s meteoric political trajectory, Brigitte was by his side: in debates, for example, she always occupied a seat in the front row. “Our intimate relationship is personal and political”, he declared. Among the tasks of the former teacher (she stopped teaching as soon as he took office as minister) were editing and rehearsing speeches. 🇧🇷

She still kept her cool in the face of the wave of rumors about her husband’s sexual orientation and when Marine Le Pen’s father, the tough nut to crack Jean-Marie Le Pen, mocked his daughter’s opponent precisely because he was married to a older woman.

Read too: Eight Photos of the Obamas in Italy You Must See Today

“Her vision matters to me,” he told reporters when he was still a minister. Elected with a platform neither on the right nor on the left, based on the modernization of the economy, he stood out as an outsider on the political scene.

Pro-globalization and defender of the permanence of France in the European Union, he wants to create possibilities to include young people from the periphery (mostly immigrants) in society. One of the first acts of his government was to announce a ministry that stands out, among other attributes, for the parity between men and women. If he was influenced by Brigitte, we don’t know. But you can tell that this love does you a lot of good.