Official role for Brigitte

It is the first time a president’s spouse has been given an official role and came at Mr Mac­ron’s request but also after 316,000 people signed a petition rejecting any official role.

Mrs Macron will not receive a salary or budget – her costs are paid out of Mr Macron’s budget. She will be active on social issues and education, disabled people, health, women’s issues and equality. She will have her own office, secretariat and two advisers.

Spelled out in a ‘transparency charter’ on the Elysée website, one of her key roles is to “represent France alongside her husband, notably at foreign meetings” while for palace receptions she will ‘surpervise’.