The French president is in a pickle. Francois Hollande, who has already shown himself to be a poor excuse for a national leader, has now found his private life on the front pages, something that is most unusual in his country. As a rule, French politicians have been allowed to keep their private lives and public lives separate, aided by strict privacy laws. However, it seems that M Hollande has behaved so badly that even the French can't stomach it.
In 2005, Hollande ditched his longstanding partner and mother of his 4 children, Segolene Royal, in favour of Valerie Trierweiler, a former journalist. Trierweiler, despite being twice divorced but not being married to the French President, has even gloried in the title of 'First Lady' in a shameless parody of the US style. However, Hollande has now been caught having an affair with a young actress, Julie Gayet, and Trierweiler, her glamorous career in tatters, has taken to a hospital bed suffering, we are told, from shock.
In Britain, such a list of extra-marital activity would undoubtedly have led to the end of any politician's career, though not in France, at least, until now. Now it seems that Hollande's failure to sort out the mess that is the French economy has made people much more willing to criticise his private as well as his public actions and he is an embattled man.
Personally, I don't care what our political leaders get up to as long as they're able, honest and decent, both in public and private; I actually find it hard to believe that someone who behaves badly in private is likely to be any different in public. In France, these attributes have been applied only to their public roles but that may well be about to change.
Hollande's mucky private life is surely merely a continuation of his incompetent public life and the French people may start wondering about the connection between private and public personas next time they vote.
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