An article in The Spectator said that Macron has an almost autistic inability to connect with regular French people. Sounds about right.
Macron does what he’s told.
About six months prior to the French election, I was watching an interview with a historian-professor who had studied every election since WW II in France. So he came to the topic of Macron, and noted....this was the oddest character to ever emerge...with no prior election experience. Most past candidates had been mayors or major figures in government. Macron had none of the squares filled that you’d typically expect.
The wife-story? The professor suggested that this intrigued French people...like a soap-opera setting. The guy looked like a male-model, and that was the real sales gimmick being used. Adding to it...the top candidates from the center-left and center-right parties? Scandals...they were easily finished off.