The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is again in the headlines for all the wrong reasons after it mocked the newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Trogneux on its latest front cover.
The illustrated cover shows the 39-year-old Macron patting the heavily pregnant stomach of his 64-year-old wife with the caption: “He will do miracles”.
Presumably, the inference of the cartoon is that Macron will have to perform miracles to fulfil his election promises, much like getting his much older wife pregnant.
Others in the French media have suggested the marriage is one of convenience and Macron is actually homosexual.
The couple have been married for 10 years and have no children, although Trogneux has three kids (and seven grandkids) from a previous marriage, one the same age has her husband. The age difference between the two is regularly bought up in French media and not always in a positive way.
The two started dating when Macron was a 16-year-old student of Trogneux’s.
Charlie Hebdo regularly targets French politicians and religions and most famously had its offices attacked in 2015 by Muslim extremists and 17 editorial staff were shot dead.
The magazine’s latest cover has already been attacked for being sexist and out-of-touch with the times. While others have argued its critics are missing the joke – that, like an immaculate conception, the newly-elected President will indeed need to perform miracles if he wants to transform France’s political landscape.
