Should ‘Première Dame’ be a formal job title?

The Debates feature from Euro|Topics offers English (+ French and German) translations of a selections of articles in European news sources on this topic.

Euro|Topics relaunched their website during 2016. Features published before that date are still available via an archive website (see related url hyperlinks).In his 2017 Presidential election campaign French President Emmanuel Macron promised to give official status to the role played by the president's wife. Anything else would be 'hypocritical' in view of the public role that this position entails.

However, in August 2017 he scrapped the plan in the face of a petition against the move. European media commentators ask whether he was too quick to abandon a good idea?

• Primary Source

http://archiv.eurotopics.net/en/home/presseschau/aktuell.html http://archiv.eurotopics.net/en/home/presseschau/aktuell.html

The New York Times, 08.08.17: France Backs Away From First Lady Role for Brigitte Macron https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/europe/france-first-lady.html

BBC News, 08.08.17: France: Macron to abandon plans for official first lady http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40867031

The Guardian, 08.08.17: [Opinion]: Emmanuel Macron is right to want Brigitte to be France’s first lady https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/08/emmanuel-macron-brigitte-france-first-lady

France24, 08.08.17: No official 'first lady' status due for France's Brigitte Macron http://www.france24.com/en/20170808-france-no-official-first-lady-status-due-brigitte-macron

France24, 21.08.17: French presidency gives Brigitte Macron official role, but no salary http://www.france24.com/en/20170821-french-presidency-brigitte-macron-official-role-first-lady

The Local.fr, 21.08.17: Brigitte Macron given official role but new 'first lady' status remains shelved https://www.thelocal.fr/20170821/brigitte-macron-given-official-role-but-new-first-lady-status-remains-shelved

---