Finally, Hollande visits hospitalised partner
18 Jan 2014 12:16 AM GMT
President Francois Hollande has visited France’s first lady for the first time since she was hospitalized late last week after a gossip magazine reported he was having an affair with an actress.
An official at the presidential palace said on Friday that Hollande visited Valerie Trierweiler the previous evening.
The 48-year-old journalist was admitted a week ago to Paris’ Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital for rest. His office said she had experienced a ‘crisis of nerves’ upon learning of the report in Closer magazine last week that the 59-year-old president has been having an affair with Julie Gayet, 41.
Patrice Biancone, a spokesman for Trierweiler, said on Thursday that her condition was improving, and that until then only one person from her family - a son - had visited her.
In its initial report on the matter, Closer published photos that it said show Hollande, wearing a motorcycle helmet with darkened visor, was sneaking into an apartment near the presidential palace to meet Gayet. Gayet is suing the magazine, accusing it of invasion of privacy.
The report dented a tradition among French media of ignoring the private lives of public figures.
At a previously planned news conference on Tuesday, Hollande acknowledged ‘painful moments’ in his relationship with Trierweiler. He refused to go into any more detail, saying only that the question of who the first lady is would be clarified before he leaves next month for a state visit in the United States that she’d been expected to attend.
Europe-1 radio reported on Thursday night that Gayet told the radio station by telephone that rumors she is pregnant are untrue. Gayet has not spoken publicly about the matter, and her agent and lawyer have declined to comment on her private life.
French prez presened dung by critic
PARIS: A critic of President Francois Hollande and France’s ruling elite dumped tonnes of horse manure in front of the national parliament building in Paris on Thursday in a pungent protest against French politics.
‘Out with Hollande and the entire political class. Long live the Sixth Republic,’ read a message on the side of the man’s articulated truck. France’s present-day Fifth Republic was founded in 1958 with Charles de Gaulle its first president. The unnamed perpetrator was detained by police.
Doubts over French first lady status not global
PARIS: France’s unmarried president - and the reported love triangle involving the companion he installed into the Elysee palace and a French actress supposedly down the street - have led the country into a delicate debate over whether it needs a first lady at all.
Many countries lack official status for the spouse or companion of a leader, turning up some complicated situations, even when the public is willing to turn a blind eye.
UNITED STATES
A court battle over the role of Hillary Rodham Clinton in a health care task force affirmed the status of First Lady as official in the United States, when a federal appeals panel ruled in 1993 that the president’s spouse is ‘a de facto officer or employee’ of the government.
GERMANY
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s husband, chemistry professor Joachim Sauer, keeps a low public profile.
He occasionally accompanies Merkel on official trips, but stayed away from her election and swearing-in in Parliament at the beginning of all her three terms, earning him the nickname ‘the phantom of the opera’.
BENELUX
The elected leaders are unmarried in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The prime ministers of both Belgium and Luxembourg are gay, one single and one in a relationship, while the prime minister of the Netherlands is a bachelor whose personal life is of marginal interest to most Dutch voters.
ARGENTINA
Cristina Fernandez was a high-profile first lady during the 2003-2007 presidency of her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner.
Kirchner became her top political and economic adviser later until his death in October 2010.
An official at the presidential palace said on Friday that Hollande visited Valerie Trierweiler the previous evening.
The 48-year-old journalist was admitted a week ago to Paris’ Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital for rest. His office said she had experienced a ‘crisis of nerves’ upon learning of the report in Closer magazine last week that the 59-year-old president has been having an affair with Julie Gayet, 41.
Patrice Biancone, a spokesman for Trierweiler, said on Thursday that her condition was improving, and that until then only one person from her family - a son - had visited her.
In its initial report on the matter, Closer published photos that it said show Hollande, wearing a motorcycle helmet with darkened visor, was sneaking into an apartment near the presidential palace to meet Gayet. Gayet is suing the magazine, accusing it of invasion of privacy.
The report dented a tradition among French media of ignoring the private lives of public figures.
At a previously planned news conference on Tuesday, Hollande acknowledged ‘painful moments’ in his relationship with Trierweiler. He refused to go into any more detail, saying only that the question of who the first lady is would be clarified before he leaves next month for a state visit in the United States that she’d been expected to attend.
Europe-1 radio reported on Thursday night that Gayet told the radio station by telephone that rumors she is pregnant are untrue. Gayet has not spoken publicly about the matter, and her agent and lawyer have declined to comment on her private life.
French prez presened dung by critic
PARIS: A critic of President Francois Hollande and France’s ruling elite dumped tonnes of horse manure in front of the national parliament building in Paris on Thursday in a pungent protest against French politics.
‘Out with Hollande and the entire political class. Long live the Sixth Republic,’ read a message on the side of the man’s articulated truck. France’s present-day Fifth Republic was founded in 1958 with Charles de Gaulle its first president. The unnamed perpetrator was detained by police.
Doubts over French first lady status not global
PARIS: France’s unmarried president - and the reported love triangle involving the companion he installed into the Elysee palace and a French actress supposedly down the street - have led the country into a delicate debate over whether it needs a first lady at all.
Many countries lack official status for the spouse or companion of a leader, turning up some complicated situations, even when the public is willing to turn a blind eye.
UNITED STATES
A court battle over the role of Hillary Rodham Clinton in a health care task force affirmed the status of First Lady as official in the United States, when a federal appeals panel ruled in 1993 that the president’s spouse is ‘a de facto officer or employee’ of the government.
GERMANY
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s husband, chemistry professor Joachim Sauer, keeps a low public profile.
He occasionally accompanies Merkel on official trips, but stayed away from her election and swearing-in in Parliament at the beginning of all her three terms, earning him the nickname ‘the phantom of the opera’.
BENELUX
The elected leaders are unmarried in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The prime ministers of both Belgium and Luxembourg are gay, one single and one in a relationship, while the prime minister of the Netherlands is a bachelor whose personal life is of marginal interest to most Dutch voters.
ARGENTINA
Cristina Fernandez was a high-profile first lady during the 2003-2007 presidency of her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner.
Kirchner became her top political and economic adviser later until his death in October 2010.
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