French politics is so much fun

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet (full disclosure: she is a good friend) writes about the enthralling saga of the new French President's two women, past and present, politician and political journalist. First Girlfriend Valérie Trierweiler appears to be following Carla Bruni in one respect: making her husband/partner a political laughing stock.

The woman many of the French are calling “Rottweiler” then illustrated the shortest way to link the words “pride”, “goeth”, “before” and “fall”. Nicolas Sarkozy had been kicked out of office chiefly for having paraded his private life with ostentation. Demurring that she would play “no political part whatsoever”, Trierweiler made it difficult to forget her existence for one minute. Whether she was bemoaning that she didn’t like the title “First Lady” and inviting the public to think up a new one, or insisting that she could remain a working Paris Match reporter “in all independence” while maintaining a staff and office at the Élysée Palace, she was hardly ever out of the news.

Scenting a rich vein, the political puppet show Les Guignols de l’info hastily recycled the puppet they’d used for Jacques Chirac’s spin-doctor daughter Claude, slapping on a new wig and redoing its make-up to rush their Valérie on air. They now portray Hollande as a bumbling, henpecked husband. Deferring to She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, the President is depicted fleeing to the comforting arms of a softer, sweeter, more understanding female – Angela Merkel.

Absolutely priceless.

Yes, yes, I know that this is not what politics should be about and France has many problems (even more than they had before François Hollande became President) but it is considerably more entertaining as well as elegant than the interminable saga of the Leveson enquiry that seems to grip the British media.