Neither at the Elysée, nor on the set of TF1 at Boulogne-Billancourt, but at Robert-Debré (Paris XIX): it is in this pediatric university hospital that Brigitte Macron, new president of the foundation of the hospitals of France (in charge of the operation "yellow rooms"), answered questions from Gilles Bouleau, while anger is raging in hospitals.
"I understand the fight of the caregivers," she said straight away. Locked in the Elysée, the First Lady? "The person who will lock me up was not born. I'm outside every day! Even if she confesses a relationship a bit "biased" because of her status as president's wife, she certifies staying in touch, to use Macronian terminology. “We are aware of the frustrations of the French. People tell me that from the 15th of the month, it's difficult, and that they don't want that for their children, "continues Brigitte Macron. Then a rant: against social networks and the anonymous violence that spills over there. Anonymity all the more intolerable as children are sometimes targeted. Regularly, it is her husband who pays the price.
And sometimes, it is himself, who by certain shocking or cavalier phrases, ignites the Web. One, in particular, sticks like the plaster of Captain Haddock to his quinquennium: in September 2018, he had invited a young unemployed person "to cross the street" to find work. Words that have earned him since an arrogant trial. “When I find that he has made a mistake, I tell him […] It's complicated to say to a young man a sentence like this,” admits the First Lady, who tries to justify it: “The day before , we were at the restaurant, and the restaurateur told us that he would give work to the first one who crossed the street, because I need it. Sometimes sentences come out spontaneously, which damage our image, but it's too late ... We are in an era when a word can condemn you. It is a very serious obstacle to our freedom, ”she laments.
An increased political role for 2022?
In the interview, she herself advances with counted steps, to avoid the crooked word which would harm her husband. On the contrary, it is there to give a flattering image, that of a president "inhabited" by France, of a man - "Emmanuel" - "unchanged". Is he insensitive? "Look, every time he came out of a big debate that had lasted for hours, the French were happy, they saw how well he knew the subjects. When we are with him, things change, ”praises the First Lady, on the front line to support him.
Is this the start of a rise in power of Brigitte Macron in the long march towards the presidential election of 2022, she who had made fairly discreet beginnings at the Elysée? Its intact popularity with the French, its capital of empathy and its humanitarian or social commitments undeniably make it a political asset that will count, as it had been the case in 2017. “It is profitable in electoral terms. She talks to people who nobody talks to, "a relative of the Macron couple told a few months ago. If it is not politics, it still looks like it. "I do not name the ministers," she said, however, to put an end to the rumors lending her influence at all times.
