Mr. Macron’s Homefront Flub

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/opinion/mr-macrons-homefront-flub.html

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President Emmanuel Macron of France, whose popularity has diminished since his striking international debut as head of state in May, suffered his first political setback last week, and it hit close to home. During his campaign, Mr. Macron said he would like to see a statute that gave the president’s spouse an official role. But, on Tuesday, Mr. Macron was forced to abandon the idea after more than 300,000 people signed an online petition against official recognition for the French first lady.

Mr. Macron’s timing could hardly have been worse. Last week France’s Parliament debated and passed an ethics law for politicians that, among other things, banned the hiring of relatives. The issue of paying family members from the public pot was a matter of hot debate during the presidential campaign after it was revealed that the center-right Les Républicains candidate, François Fillon, had employed his wife and children on the public payroll for work they may not have done, and that no law prevented French politicians from employing family members with public funds.

While Mr. Macron never suggested that his wife, Brigitte, be paid for her role as first lady, the author of the petition, Thierry Paul Valette, argued that a legally defined office would get its own “budget from public funds,” The cost of the spouse’s office, staff and bodyguards now comes out of the budget for the president.

Mr. Macron’s government now vows to bring forth a “charter of transparency” on the first spouse’s role. This is not a bad idea. Mr. Macron’s intention is to face the contradictions of the role squarely, and modernize the French presidency.

The new charter of transparency on the first spouse’s role could allow Mrs. Macron, arguably the French president’s closest adviser, to play a clearly defined role. Meanwhile, summer will soon be over, and the hard part of Mr. Macron’s promised agenda — budget cuts and labor reforms — will begin. Mr. Macron would do well to resist squandering any more of his dwindling political capital before then.