Daughter slams critics of new French First Lady

Paris May 14 (IANS) The daughter of France s new First Lady Brigitte Trogneux has slammed the critics who have attacked the 24-year age gap between her and husband President-elect Emmanuel Macron the media reported.

Tiphaine Auziere 32 on Saturday said jealousy was behind the abhorrent attacks targeting her 64-year-old mother s relationship with Macron 39 who will be sworn-in as the nation s 25th President on Sunday following his landslide 66 per cent presidential election win against far-Right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen The Daily Mail reported. Auziere a lawyer by profession told BFMTV: I don t want to give credence to people who do this kind of thing. I find abhorrent in France in the 21st century such attacks which would not be carried out against a male politician or a male companion of a female politician. There s a lot of jealousy she added. Trogneux and Macron s romance started after they when the President-elect starred in one of her plays at the Jesuit school Lycee La Providence Amiens northern France. Macron also shared a class at a Catholic school with one of Trogneux s two daughters Laurence - who is also 39. The couple also went on to write a play together which they later admitted was the period when they fell in love. At the time Macron was just 16 reports The Daily Mail. Trogneux a mother-of-three from a renowned family in the town of Amiens later left her banker husband Andre-Louis Auziere for Macron. Before the election Macron broached the abuse targeted at his wife saying she was the victim of everyday misogyny. If I were 20 years older than my wife nobody would have thought for a single second that I couldn t be an intimate partner he had told the Le Parisien daily. Trogneux now a grandmother of eight is also expected to play an active role in the new government. --IANS ksk