Comparisons with the characters of a popular Chinese television drama called "In the Name of the People" -- which also happens to be the slogan of French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen -- have flooded China's Twitter-like Weibo. Posts using a hashtag about the French politician's much-discussed marriage -- which translates into English as "Marrying his teacher 24 years his senior" -- have been viewed more than nine million times on the social media site. Despite the seemingly unfavourable comparison to a corrupt official, social media commenters have been largely supportive of 39-year-old Macron's relationship with his 64-year-old wife Brigitte. "Taking a high school teacher and mother as his wife, you can only call this French man a romantic," one web user said. "Please don't make malicious assumptions about others."

Source: The Nation Bangkok April 28, 2017 07:26 UTC