Question Home

Position:Home>Arts & Humanities> What is the role of the First Lady in France? (Currently Cecilia Sarkozy?)?


Question:

What is the role of the First Lady in France? (Currently Cecilia Sarkozy?)?

Does anybody know what her actual role is? And the role of the traditional first lady in France (as she does not seem to be fulfilling the role so far)?
Thankyou very much!


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: There does not seem to be a role:
There is no future for the role of dutiful partner filled for the past dozen years by Bernadette Chirac, who as first lady has run charities, held dinners and served as a local official in the farming area of Corr㨺e.
Presidents Georges Pompidou, Val㩲y Giscard d??Estaing and Fran㧯is Mitterrand and their spouses kept their private residences and rarely stayed overnight in ㉬ys㩥 Palace. When the wife of Mr. Giscard d??Estaing, Anne-Aymone, was asked early on what she wanted to do most as first lady, she replied, ??To no longer be one.??

But the role is shifting, from a long-suffering pillar of support to a symbol of independence, at a time when the private life of politicians has ever so slightly become part of politics in France.

(NY Times 26 April 2007)