"I have a husband who is adorable with his wife (..) He is a deeply honest and deeply true man", declared Monday on TF1 the wife of the Head of State, on the occasion of the launch of the Yellow Pieces operation for children in hospital.

Facing the readers of Le Parisien, the First Lady again endeavored on Thursday to humanize the president and to defend his action, at a time when he is playing part of his five-year term on pension reform: "I hear that it is not no joy of heart that the reform is launched but that, without it, the system does not hold in the long term".

Coincidence or not, she also said she was in favor of wearing a uniform - "simple and not sad" - at school, the day before the day when the question was debated in the Assembly as part of the day reserved for the Rassemblement national group.

On the left, the annoyance is great on the subject of the uniform, as on the pension reform.

"So the President's wife takes a stand to defend a public policy the day the #RN proposes it in its niche in the Assembly", ironically the national secretary of the Greens, Marine Tondelier on Twitter.

Brigitte Macron with national coach Didier Deschamps at the launch of the "Yellow Pieces" operation in Nice, January 11, 2023 © Valery HACHE / AFP

"Ms. Brigitte #Macron has no mandate or political function, she has no legitimacy to speak with authority on the #ReformeDesRetraites", estimates for his part the rebellious deputy Bastien Lachaud on Twitter.

“No communication strategy”

Reproaches brushed aside by an executive adviser.

"Brigitte Macron is always on the themes of disability, integration, education, harassment, she is not in the executive ecosystem," he says.

"She does not say + I would like the minister to do this, for my husband to do this +", notes another adviser.

And to insist: "There was no communication strategy behind it. It does not carry the word of the president", he adds, recalling that the Yellow Pieces operation is still launched in January, according to "the same plane" media.

For communication expert Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, "Brigitte Macron is Emmanuel Macron's best communicator" and this media sequence can only contribute to "reinforcing the popularity of the Head of State" at a time when he is " losing speed".

Brigitte Macron visits a primary school in Paris with the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye, December 13, 2022 © JULIEN DE ROSA / POOL/AFP

"It was she who made him popular with this love story (...) which gave him a somewhat romantic, somewhat atypical destiny", he judges.

According to the specialist, for the first time too, the president's wife has a "reserved area", education, in which she regularly gives her opinion, even if it means appearing to eclipse the minister in charge of the file.

"We see that it is gaining ground on these subjects, it is positioning itself vis-à-vis Pap Ndiaye, it relegates him to the background", adds Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary union.

On the uniform, "we are clearly in a political nod to the RN, whether wanted or not wanted", notes Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet.

For semiologist François Jost, Brigitte Macron places herself above all "in the field of ethics" and "courage".

But rarely the "private life, the intimate" will have taken up so much space in an interview with the First Lady, assures this professor emeritus in communication at the Sorbonne Nouvelle.

And rarely has a president's wife gone so far in her positions, with the exception of Danielle Mitterrand with her positions in favor of Fidel Castro or the Kurds.

© 2023 AFP