Bono meets with French President to discuss pressing poverty issues

Rocker and activist Bono enjoyed a private meeting with new French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday (24Jul17) to discuss plans to tackle global poverty.
For decades, the U2 frontman has been at the forefront of campaigns aimed at helping the poor and tackling the AIDS crisis in Africa through his ONE foundation, and he is regularly granted visits with world leaders.
This week, his philanthropy work took him to the Elysee Palace in Paris, where he sat down for a chat lasting over an hour with President Macron, who was voted into office in May (17).
After the meeting, Bono told reporters they had talked at length about how to further the education of girls and women in Africa, while he said Macron had vowed to make good on his campaign promise to boost France’s budget to help support the growth of developing countries.
Macron has since shared a photo of the pair deep in discussions on Twitter.
The image was captioned, “With Bono, creativity against poverty. We share #ONEfight.”
The meeting with Macron took place on the eve of U2’s concert at Paris’ Stade de France on Tuesday (25Jul17).
Bono is no stranger to the presidential palace – he has previously sat down with former leaders Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Francois Hollande.
The Irish singer was awarded France’s highest civilian award, the Legion of Honor, in 2003.
Meanwhile, Macron is also preparing to welcome another celebrity philanthropist to the Elysee Palace this week – R&B superstar Rihanna will be the guest of honour on Wednesday (26Jul17).
The Umbrella hitmaker’s meeting is likely to concern the global support for education in the developing world, after she reached out to world leaders on Twitter last month (Jun17), urging them to put schooling on the top of their priority lists.