Rihanna Meets With French President Emmanuel Macron
POLITICAL PERSUASIONS: What to wear when meeting the French president? Rihanna, for her one-on-one with Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday, opted for a classic yet edgy oversize navy jacket with gray pants with a back panel and matching shirt, accessorized with a Dior Addict handbag with a chain strap and vintage-inspired logo and heels. (Accompanying the singer up the palace steps, First Lady Brigitte Macron went casual chic in skinny jeans, a white short-sleeved jacket and heels.)
Emmanuel Macron, who already met with U2 frontman and activist Bono on Monday, had extended an invitation to Rihanna to discuss France’s funding of international education after she personally messaged him on Twitter in June, according to reports. “Bonjour @Emmanuel Macron, will France commit to #FundEducation?” tweeted the star, who also messaged the leaders of Germany, Argentina and Canada asking about their commitment to support education in the developing world, as founder of the American nonprofit Clara Lionel Foundation.
Last year, she tweeted Macron’s predecessor, François Hollande, and got a reply: “Dear Rihanna, thank you for your commitment. You will receive my detailed response. In fact, education is the first priority.”
Making the most of her time in Paris, the “Rude Boy” singer and designer of the Fenty Puma line on Tuesday — sporting a pink Prada dress embellished with beads and feathers — hit Luc Besson’s Cité du Cinéma in Paris’ La Plaine-Saint-Denis for the premiere of the director’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” in which she plays the role of “Bubble.”
Macron has played host to Rihanna and Bono as his ratings countrywide have dropped by 10 points, to 54 percent, since being elected in May. That marks the biggest decline for a new president since Jacques Chirac in the mid-Nineties.
Speaking to TV crews after his rendezvous with the president on Monday, Bono said: “It wasn’t really much of a meeting, really more of a conversation, actually. I haven’t had many conversations quite like that. A president very open to finding new innovative ways to solve the problems affecting the world’s poor.
“We talked about the refugee crisis, and how most Europeans now understand that what happens on the continent of Africa matters to them,” he added. “Brigitte [Macron] has a real passion for girls’ education, I guess because she is a teacher, and we talked about how to deal with 130 million girls not going to school, and how this president wants to work on that….[Macron] confirmed his commitment to [boosting France’s aid budget to 0.55 percent of gross domestic product] by 2022 which is really important for all our campaigners.”
An elated looking Rihanna when she emerged from the building, meanwhile, told reporters that she had “just had the most incredible meeting with the president of France and First Lady.”
“They were incredibly welcoming, we focused on the topic of education from global aspects,” she said, adding that a “big announcement” will be made in September, followed by “even more work in Africa in October.”
“I was so inspired and impressed with his leadership. I can’t wait to see where this is going to go, but I think this is the year for education,” gushed Rihanna. “Stay tuned.”
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