Brigitte Macron: France’s first lady will celebrate her 70th birthday ‘under tight security’ today

French first lady Brigitte Macron celebrates her 70th birthday today under tight security – due to violent protests against President Emmanuel Macron.

A source close to Madame Macron said she was “concerned for her own safety and that of her husband” and now hardly ever leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Thousands are expected on the streets of the capital on Thursday to campaign against Macron raising France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.

There will also be nationwide strikes, telling visitors to the country to expect flight, train and bus cancellations and delays.

Key workers who have stopped working include garbage collectors, who have piled piles of rubbish in major cities and towns, including Paris.

It’s been exactly one month since Mr Macron announced his major pension reform, saying he would use a presidential decree to force it into the code.

France’s Constitutional Court will rule on Friday on the legality of Mr Macron’s new pension legislation, heightening today’s tensions.

In recent days, Madame Macron has seen protesters trying to get close to Mr Macron – who is 25 years her junior at 45 – including during a visit to the Netherlands, where one of them was knocked to the ground as he went to the president sprinted.

The incident occurred when Macron arrived at the University of Amsterdam.

The man was heard shouting, ‘We’re here! We are here!’ as he stormed into a gathering of people around the French president, before security grabbed him.

Two people were arrested.

This came after a mob set fire to La Rotonde – the Macron’s favorite Parisian restaurant – during a march a week ago.

Some 5,000 police officers will be on the streets of the capital today as similar protests are planned across the country.

“Brigitte is extremely concerned about what is going on,” the Parisian source said.

She used to go for walks in local parks with her husband and take their dog Nemo for long walks along the Seine.

“This is impossible now, because she has to be under tight security at the Elysee Palace, which is guarded day and night.”

In an interview earlier this year, Madame Macron said: ‘When I turn 70 you’ll hear it, I’m sure. I won’t read anything that day.”

An Elysee source confirmed that she was planning “a quiet celebration” for her historic birthday – April 13.

The Macrons married in 2007, after a long relationship, which began when the future premiere lady learned the young Emmanuelle drama at his school in Amiens, northeastern France.

She later divorced her first husband, with whom she had three children, to marry Mr. Macron.

Brigitte, who has three children from her previous marriage, has been remembered for decades about the 25-year age difference between her and her husband.

Their marriage was a sensation when Emmanuel Macron came out in the open – first as a minister, then as a presidential candidate in 2016 – with many questioning whether such an unusual couple could be real.

While their love affair has since won skeptics, public interest in the norm-breaking first couple — and references to Brigitte’s age — never cease to abate.

French First Lady Brigitte Macron (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron receive a guard of honor as they walk with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema (not seen) during a wreath-laying ceremony in Amsterdam on April 11.

Restaurant La Rotonde – reportedly Macron’s favorite in Paris – burns down after being attacked by protesters during the 11th day of action after the government pushed a pension reform without a vote through parliament in Paris on April 6, 2023.

Riot police fire tear gas at education workers during a protest demanding a bigger budget for the sector and rejecting a new education plan by Bolivian President Luis Arce’s government in La Paz on April 12, 2023

“Wait for April 13, 2023, then I’ll be 70,” she told women’s lifestyle magazine S in January, with thinly veiled fear of the forthcoming flood of news articles about her age and date of birth. “You’ll hear about it, I’m sure.”

She told the magazine she “never promoted our couple: it exists, but you can’t explain it. Of course it’s easier to be in the same age group,” she added.

Her office declined to say what she had planned for her historic birthday when approached by a new agency from AFP.

She once spoke of the risk of appearing as a decorative “vase of flowers” during the staged photo ops and ceremonial duties of such occasions.

Always a reluctant political wife, she reportedly discouraged her husband from entering public life in the first place and remained particularly lukewarm about his bid for a second term last April.

During anti-Macron demonstrations in 2018 by so-called ‘Yellow Vests’ protesters, the literature and theater enthusiast was personally attacked and subjected to insults from former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his cabinet.

“Did you see my face on re-election night?” she recently told Le Point magazine, referring to her stiff demeanor as her husband celebrated another five years in power.

When not representing France abroad, she threw herself into charitable work at home, supported by a small team operating from their own space in the presidential palace.

Most of her campaign issues are related to her former career as a teacher — bullying in schools, childhood autism, mental health and social media — but they’re also classic picks.

“In terms of her activities, she is very traditional in her approach,” Robert Schneider, the author of a French-language book about presidents’ wives, “First Ladies,” told AFP.

Born into a wealthy provincial family – her father owned a chocolate shop in her hometown of Amiens – Brigitte is widely believed to be more conservative than her husband and is on friendly terms with right-wing former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

“In the beginning, there were two sides to her: a free woman who had broken social conventions (through her marriage) … right,” Schneider added.

“Today it’s the second side of her that dominates.”

There is endless speculation in France about her influence on policy.

She is widely used to relay messages from advisers and allies to her husband, serving as a sounding board for his ideas.

French First Lady Brigitte Macron and Queen Maxima visit the Keukenhof of the Netherlands during a French state visit to the country

French President Emmanuel Macron participates in a wreath-laying ceremony, accompanied by First Lady Brigitte Macron, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 11, 2023

As his former drama teacher, Brigitte also takes a keen interest in Macron’s public speeches and speeches, coaching him in speaking and reciting.

“I never grabbed him to say ‘do this or do that,'” she told Le Monde newspaper in 2021. “But he always asks me what I think, like he does with (Chief of Staff) Alexis Kohler. Then he does what he wants.’

Naturally talkative, outgoing and sociable, Brigitte has fought to curb her tendency to be forthright and direct in public.

“I pay much more attention to what I say … because it’s not just about me,” she told TF1 in January. ‘I would like to have much more freedom of speech.’