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By now, the story is all over the place. The companion of the new French president has been tweeting messages against her man’s ex, who is running in today’s legislative elections.
OMG.
It is pretty scandalous, as is the fact that former first lady Carla Bruni is looking a little bit chubbs lately (according to my boss at the celebrity site where I work.)
We might be used to this kind of thing in the states (‘Did Michelle Obama REALLY wear that dress ?’) but it is actually a new phenomenon in France. One so counter traditional French political culture that it has a name: ‘peopolitisation.’ The word is a combination of ‘people’ (the term widely used by French to talk about anything celebrity) and ‘politique’ (politician) and basically means the culture of turning politicians into celebrities. It is such a big deal that No. 1 newspaper Le Figaro even has a blog about it.
Opinions vary, but for my friend Emilie*, a well-known political journalist and correspondent, this recent trend can be pinned down to a precise moment. It was during Sarkozy’s first campaign for president. His son, who was just a little boy at the time, appeared to endorse his campaign, saying something super cute like ‘Vote for my papa.’
No biggie in the US. I went to a Kansas City rally for Obama before he even announced he was running and remember vividly a little girl climbing on stage and talking about how she’d feel if he were ever to run for president. But that is the US. We are used to tangling celebrity life and political life. In the US, Bill Clinton was asked, under oath, if he was having an affair with Monica Lewinsky. In France, beloved French president François Mitterrand had a mistress and an illegitimate daughter, who came to his funeral and stood next to his wife Danielle. French people just didn’t mix the two.
…And then came Sarkozy. He may have been influenced a bit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the young, photogenic European leader who earned a bit of celebrity status during his time in office. But Sarkozy soon put even Blair to shame: right from the beginning of his entry into presidential politics, Sarkozy’s high-living and personal dramas were making headlines. And I mean immediately. As in he threw a raucous and extravagant election victory party at a Champs Elysée restaurant… that he is still apologizing for years later (“If that is all I have to apologize for during my years as president, I’d say that’s a pretty good record.” Cough.)
Emilie gave me a whirlwind hilarious history of various events in the Sarko years, but a big one is that Sarkozy is the only president to have divorced in office. And then he started running around with that leggy former model Carla Bruni.
Emilie’s father has never forgiven Sarkozy for the cringe-worthy moment when he said ‘Carla and I, it’s serious stuff.’
To him, Sarkozy seemed less like a president and more like a teenager stamping his foot and insisting he’s serious about the girl he’s neglecting his homework for.
Fast forward to the 2011-2012 campaign season. Carla is now Mrs. Bruni-Sarkozy. And just before the start of campaign season, Sarkozy and Carla had a baby, Giulia (‘Surprising,’ said Emilie. ‘I was so sure they’d time it for election day.’)
Sure, French people read all the articles about Giulia’s birth, but they were getting weary of all this. There are a lot of people like Emilie’s father.
This is one reason that people may have voted in François Hollande—who won his presidency thanks to a lot of supporters… and a lot of anti-Sarkozyists.
People called him ‘Mr. Normal.’ It might not sound all that great, but for a lot of French, it beat ‘Mr. Bling.’
‘Dallas’ in the presidential palace
But people seemed to be forgetting something. Actually, Hollande has a suuuper complicated love life. As in, his ex-wife (and the mother of his children), Ségolène Royal, is also a Socialist politician. And Ségolène ran against Sarkozy the first time around. Plus, she is still in politics (talk about awkward.)
There were a few rough moments during Hollande’s campaign like when he made a video of key Socialists in the party’s history… and neglected to mention Ségolène, the only female candidate to ever make it to the second round of elections.
ANYWAY, Hollande’s new companion is Valérie Trierweiler, a well-known journalist. Though they are ‘serious stuff,’ they aren’t married… making Hollande the only unmarried French president ever.
I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been drama before this. Hollande’s life sort of seems like a stack of loose kindling waiting for a match.
Enter Twitter.
Last week, Valérie used her Twitter account to endorse Olivier Falorni, a legislative candidate from La Rochelle running in today’s election. Fair enough. Except that she had endorsed the candidate running against Ségolène (remember, Hollande’s ex Ségolène is still in politics.)
Uh-oh.
A media flurry, which could have been called ‘War of the Exes’ followed. France groaned, with more than one journalist saying ‘We thought this ended with Sarkozy’s ouster.’
So much for Hollande’s drama-free presidency.
Even Mr. Normal isn’t free from drama in the internet age.
As for Ségolène vs. Valérie, we’ll see after the second round of the legislative elections today if VT’s tweet had any impact on Ségolène’s success.
*Emilie is not Emilie’s real name.