France Backs Away From Official Role for First Lady 8, 2017 PARIS — Proposals to make official the role of France’s first lady ran aground after a public outcry over suggestions by the French president that it was time to consider enshrining in law the role of presidential spouse. One 2016 poll by IFOP, a major French pollster, found that 69 percent of those surveyed did not want an official role for the first lady, said Jérôme Fourquet, the director of opinion polling for the organization. While there is no statute in the United States defining the first lady’s role and the position is unpaid, since 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed a law authorizing a budget and a staff, it has become accepted that the presidential spouse has a number of duties and needs assistance to carry them out. From an American perspective, the French furor over defining an official position and responsibilities for the first lady looks like a tempest in a teapot: First ladies, whether Republican or Democrat, at least since the presidency of Herbert Hoover, have pushed boundaries — some more than others. French said that For the French, " Mr. Fourquet said. that The French respect that it was the husband who was elected by the people, Although President Emmanuel Macron had yet to specify what role he envisioned, a petition against any official recognition of the first lady began circulating on the internet three weeks ago.
