So, President Macron’s wife appeared to push him in the face.
A flood of analysis immediately followed. Here is the Guardian‘s offering: “Brigitte Macron’s push has reverberated around the world. Why was it met with a shrug in France?”
The standfirst to Pauline Block’s article is: “Whatever the explanation for the incident, the reaction points to backward French attitudes – including from the president himself”. Although Ms Bock probably did not write those words, they are a fair reflection of her article. It casts its net wide, and among the fish brought up from the depths are the age gap between the Macrons, the convention by which the French press says nothing about the romantic relationships of French politicians, how would we feel if it was a man pushing a woman, and…
That Macron doesn’t see the potential problem in the video points to a narrow, obsolete understanding of couple dynamics and domestic violence. He has twice proclaimed gender equality to be the “great cause” of his presidential mandates before refusing to properly fund it; he has spoken in support of the French actor Gérard Depardieu, who has recently been found guilty of sexual assault and is soon to be on trial again for rape; and to this day, the former interior minister and current justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, who was accused of sexual assault (the case has now been dismissed), has remained in Macron’s cabinet.
It would have been easy enough to turn this moment into a public health message. He could have simply said that he’s all right, thanks for your consideration, but that men who do experience violence should feel no shame in seeking help, using it as an opportunity to discuss domestic violence prevention. Instead, he mocked the “fools” who thought anything could be amiss.
But why should he turn it into a “public health message” if he and his wife really were only larking around? There is something very cavalier about the Guardian‘s “whatever” in “Whatever the explanation for the incident”. The true explanation of the incident is the only thing that matters. If it was play, even play mixed in with annoyance (and such pretended fighting moves can be used to defuse quarrels as well as to escalate them), then it is nobody’s business other than the Macrons’ own, and the demand that he – or she – use it as a teaching moment is intrusive. How would Mme Bock like it if a similar demand for an impromptu sermon were made of her after some innocent but embarrassing incident in her private life was accidentally caught on camera?
But if it was a real attack, there are indeed things to discuss. Does anyone have the right not to have their act of domestic violence investigated because their spouse or partner has not officially complained? Does anyone have the right not to have an act of domestic violence against them investigated because they have made no official complaint? Does it make any difference whether either party is male or female? Does it make a difference if either party is a political leader?
If it was real. But we don’t know if it was. Looking at the video at quarter speed, I still couldn’t decide. So all the questions above are repeated with “act of domestic violence” replaced with “what looks on the face of it like an act of domestic violence”.
In favour of the push crossing the threshold into being an assault, albeit not one intended to cause injury, is the fact that Mme Macron looked angry and refused to take her husband’s arm as she descended the steps, and that the Elysée Palace initially lied and said the video was fake. In favour of it being mere bickering horseplay is that the plane was full of bodyguards specifically charged with protecting the President of France.
What do you think?
Bickering horseplay? I think not. Mme Macron is officially 72. If, as some suspect, she is actually the transgender identity of Jean-Michel Trogneux, she is 80. I don’t see a person of that age indulging in “horseplay” with a 47 year old man.
To be honest, JohnK, I do not see why you say that her greater age makes it less likely to be horseplay. Propensity to violence does not usually rise with age. Quite the contrary.
And I find the theory that Brigitte Macron is a M to F transgender person, let alone one aged 80, impossible to take seriously, for the same reason that I found the theory that Edward Heath was actually a prolific child-murderer impossible to take seriously. Political leaders and their spouses are under constant scrutiny. Too many people would have to be in on it. And what would be in it for Emmanuel Macron?
Natalie:
M. Macron was seduced by his teacher at the age of 14. I doubt he had much say in the matter. Please remember that France has very strict laws on privacy, which the couple use to deter discussion.
The idea that Mme Macron is a transgender is one of those things which seems ridiculous when you hear it, but when you examine it more deeply begins to seem strangely plausible. I cannot assert it as a fact, neither can I flatly reject it.
For myself, I cannot see any way that I would engage in “horseplay” with a woman in her 70s. Then again I had no desire to marry any of my teachers. But what happened was clearly not “horseplay”, as could be seen by M. Macron’s furious expression and tightly clenched fist. He was suppressing absolute rage. Any attempt by him to dismiss this incident is simply gaslighting. Who would you believe, Emmanuel Macron or your lying eyes?
There are many stories about Western leaders – I do not believe most of them.
But the story that are talentless hacks whose rise in both the Corporate and Political worlds is not connected to any real achievements, because they have never done any good work, is true.
As for Mr Macron – he was presented as an “outsider” and a “breath of fresh air” at the first Presidential election he won – it is astonishing that anyone, even with all the media propaganda, could believe such a total reversal of the truth.
Does anyone have the right not to have their act of domestic violence investigated because their spouse or partner has not officially complained? Does anyone have the right not to have an act of domestic violence against them investigated because they have made no official complaint?
I’ll take “Yes” and “Yes” for $100, Alex.
“Domestic violence” covers a lot of ground. Some of it is entirely trivial, some is fairly trivial and so on up to actual murder. I don’t think any couple would welcome the police into their lives based on fairly trivial things that the police might wish to consider as “domestic violence.” We’re apes living together, not cardboard dummies.
The stats say that women tend to initiate “domestic violence” more often than men, but generally they don’t do much harm. Men are less frequent initiators but they do quite a lot more harm because they’re bigger and stronger. Policing trivial domestic violence is not a good idea if you care about keeping the government out of private life – and what’s more it’s … sexist !
Let’s ignore it at least until it actually amounts to assault and battery.
That was violence? Man, have I obviously lived an over-violent life!
I’d guess that this is big simply because it’s so delicious for the Macron critics to be able to point and snigger.
I understand (and agree) that some small percentage of passive women end up paired off with Neanderthal men, and that we as a society ought to be looking out for those situations and stopping them.
But this sure doesn’t strike me as that.
(Sorry, can I say “strike”?)
What bobby said…
But it should be added that President Macron greatly diminished his standing in the public eye by letting a 72yo woman push him around, literally.
Macron is indeed a breath of fresh air, in the sense that he is a member of the French ruling class who is not a womanizer.
But now he turns out to have the opposite problem, so to speak.
As usual, the Babylon Bee has the truth:
https://babylonbee.com/news/french-president-macron-claims-he-fell-down-the-stairs-again
One thing I am very certain of, if I was on worldwide news for having done exactly the same thing to my wife, my life would have been irreversibly changed.
Different point of view: He improved his standing by not hitting a 72-year-old woman back!
I don’t mean to come over all Andrew Tate but meekness is never a desirable quality in a man let alone a national leader.
Staring down a bully who has struck you is a strong look, remaining impassive when an emotional lady chucks a glass of wine in your face is another. This was just cringeworthy and due to his diminutive size ridiculous – the real-life embodiment of a Donald McGill Seaside Postcard.
Whether he is into chick avec dick Macron is supreme at playing Les Buggeuer Risible.
Let’s see he was seduced when he was very young and now there is evidence that he might be physically attacked in private. Imagine if the sexes were reversed, I’m pretty sure you would say that this person might not be able to make decisions on their own and is in a coercive relationship.
tim writes, “if the sexes were reversed, I’m pretty sure you would say that this person might not be able to make decisions on their own and is in a coercive relationship.”
But the sexes were not reversed and, besides being younger and stronger than Brigitte Macron, Emmanuel Macron is the President of France. I’m really not buying him as being unable to make decisions on his own.
There are many contexts in which I strongly support treating men and women equally. Formal equality before the law is one of them. But the very success of the principle “Treat men and women equally” in overcoming the injustices suffered by women in history, and still suffered by them in many parts of the world, has led to a mindset where people refuse to acknowledge the obvious disparities of strength between men and women. The old-fashioned rule of chivalry where a man must never strike a woman, even if she hits him first, is unfair in one sense but I totally see why it evolved.
The real take home from all of this is that the President of France was chinned by the missus. I do wonder how this went down in Moscow and Pyongyang? Who is in charge of the Force de frappe? Is it Le Prez or his old drama teacher? Whatever! Macron will be getting wedgies at the next G-7.
The truth is simple.
President Macron, whether or not he gets hit by his wife, is a useless waste of space – like most Western leaders he does what he is told to do by officials and “experts”.
It might be more entertaining if if were a cocaine abuser in a relationship with a trans sexual – but I do not believe he is.
Macron is just a boring ex Credit Bubble bank executive – who was made President of France because he could be relied on to do what he was told to do, and not have any real ideas of his own.
The same is true of most Western “heads of government”.
As for heads of government who do not just OBEY – Liz Truss is a good example, and this lady was driven from office and is still being smeared (“Nigel Farage will crash the economy – just-like-Liz-Truss-did) to this day.
If you do not OBEY – the establishment do not just drive you from office, they make your name a joke, they smear you for ever.
“It might be more entertaining if if were a cocaine abuser in a relationship with a trans sexual – but I do not believe he is.”
How about this for a comedy plot… The PM/Prez/Whatever is so mind-bendingly dull that he has to order his spin-machine to concoct scandals.
BTW (asking for a friend) is there any evidence Madame Macron was ever Monsieur Macron? I mean when I first saw the pair I thought it was nice of him to bring his mum…
I do have a liking for mentalist “feories”. My fave is that Marcellus Wallace’s briefcase contained a Silmaril.
Quentin Tarantino was once linked (via Harvey Weinstein) to a single movie “Lord of the Rings” adaption. Seriously. So…
Nick:
I have watched Candace Owens’ You Tube series on the Macrons. Once you get past her terrible French pronunciation, there do seem to be questions there. I cannot say for sure that Mme Macron was born as Jean-Michel Trogneux in 1945. But she might have been.
Jean-Michel disappeared from sight in the 1960s. In the 1980s, Brigitte appeared teaching at a Lycee, and seduced one of her 14 year old pupils. The rest is history.
Mme Macron steadfastly refuses to say that she was born female in 1952, nor will she release any photographs of herself from the missing period.
She may still be a female born in 1952. The reality is that even the official version of the story is sick. They could only have got away with it in France.
What about her children? Are they not proof that she is not trans?
Snorri, exactly.
The trans thing is a sneer, as far as I can tell.
Leaving aside for a moment the distinctly-creepy aspects of the relationship between a 39 yo woman and a 14 yo boy, let’s look at this through a couple of other lenses.
If it were a case of a 39 yo man and a 14 yo girl, would the public reaction be the same indulgent pass that this relationship gets? Even in France? I submit that it would not. And so all the pious assertions we hear about equality of the sexes are shown to be nothing but meaningless cant – when it comes to cases, men and women are different.
And if it were, let’s say, a 39 yo Marine le Pen and a 14 yo boy, would the public reaction be the same? I submit that it would not. We all know that the negative media and political comment would be overwhelming. Put simply, Mr and Mrs Macron get a 100%-pass for their creepy and disturbing relationship because he’s a reliable socialist and globalist.
Discuss.
llater,
llamas
And if it were, let us say, a 39 yo Marine le Pen and a 14 yo boy
But the very success of the principle “Treat men and women equally” in overcoming the injustices suffered by women in history, and still suffered by them in many parts of the world, has led to a mindset where people refuse to acknowledge the obvious disparities of strength between men and women. The old-fashioned rule of chivalry where a man must never strike a woman, even if she hits him first, is unfair in one sense but I totally see why it evolved.
Careful, Natalie, you’re on very thin ice here. Acknowledging that there is (on average) a large disparity of strength between men and women is the gateway drug to acknowledging all sorts of other horrors. That there are (on average) disparities of other things too. Like aggression and enthusiasm for violence, attitudes to casual sex opportunities, verbal dexterity, personality traits, interests, risk taking and other things that might have evolved a bit differently between the sexes …. if we were actually evolved animals.
That way darkness lies. Go back while there is still time.
De minimis – The law should not concern itself with trifles.
The relevant question here is “Was this a trifle?”
Snorri:
Brigitte and her first husband did have children. Were they adopted? French law keeps birth certificates private. Mme Macron refuses to say if she gave birth to the children.
I am not saying for sure that Mme Macron is transgender, but there are many odd things about this story.
For instance: Jean-Michel Trogneux deferred his national service in 1963 with the explanation that he was studying in Algiers. This was one year after France was turfed out of Algeria. Does that sound normal?
When Mme Macron’s first husband died, all his belongings were destroyed. The only photograph of him which could be found for the order of service at his funeral showed him in his swimming trunks at a beach. Have you ever heard of such a thing?
NickM – yes indeed.
John K.
Candice Owens believes that Joseph Stalin was a Jew, does not believe in biological evolution, and believes the Moon landings were a hoax.
I would not believe Candice Owens on anything – not because I think she is lying, it is worse than that – I believe that Candice Owens no longer has a grip on reality.
The mental collapse of both Tucker “Space Aliens” Carlson, and Candice Owens (both of whom I used to admire) over the last couple of years, has been very grim.
They were under terrible pressure, and they snapped.
It’s probably hard to undergo a huge viral peak in viewership and exposure, and then have to try to sustain it.
I think they saw themselves descending from the mountain, and tried to find ways to keep themselves up there, with more and more outrageous but headline-making pronouncements.
They overdid it, and simply moved from “famous” to “infamous.” But I would bet that their main concern – income – is still at an acceptable level, more acceptable than if they had just completely left the public eye.
Paul:
I do not care about Candace Owens one way or another. She has not done the heavy lifting on this story. That was done by a French journalist called Xavier Poussard, Owens is largely relying his findings.
A couple of unwise French woman have been sued for libel by the Macrons. They made some claims which were easily shown to be false, and had to pay damages. But the Macrons have never sued Poussard, because his research is much better sourced. Mme Macron would have to state on oath that she was born female in 1952, and this is something she has refused to do. The women she sued were caught in a lie about her, but Poussard has been left alone.
Maybe all this will come out one day, who knows? Until then, the only thing one can say for sure is that the Macrons have a very strange and distasteful relationship. In any decent country, Brigitte Auziere (as she then was) would have been in prison for child abuse. In France she becomes First Lady.
bobby b – I do not think it is some cunning plan by Candice Owens, I think the lady really did snap.
JohnK.
You may be correct (I do not know) – I do not know enough to really discuss the matter further, we shall just have to wait and see.