Hollande’s Companion Is Hospitalized
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — Valérie Trierweiler, the companion of President François Hollande and France’s de facto first lady, was admitted to a hospital on Friday after learning along with the rest of France that Mr. Hollande is apparently having an affair with another woman. The revelation was splashed across the cover of a French tabloid magazine on Friday, and while Mr. Hollande did not deny the veracity of the report, he condemned the magazine for prying into his private life and said he was considering legal action. Mr. Hollande’s domestic problems are spilling into public view at an inconvenient time. Foreign ministers arrived in Paris on Saturday and Sunday for talks on Middle East peace, the Syrian civil war and Iran’s nuclear program, and Mr. Hollande was scheduled to lay out his agenda for the year at a news conference on Tuesday. The news of Ms. Trierweiler’s hospitalization appeared in online articles on Sunday, when few newspapers here have print editions. Her spokesman, Patrice Biancone, confirmed the reports and said Ms. Trierweiler had learned of the affair from the tabloid. Saying she had experienced a “big emotional shock,” Mr. Biancone added, “For each couple, according to your commitment, these sorts of things can devastate you.” Doctors have recommended rest for Ms. Trierweiler; officials are not disclosing where she is hospitalized or precisely why. While the long-term effect of Mr. Hollande’s personal travails on his already faltering political standing is impossible to predict, at the very least, over the next few days, the reports of an affair and Ms. Trierweiler’s hospitalization will be a distraction, making it difficult for him to make his voice heard, political commentators said. Mr. Hollande is scheduled to hold his twice-yearly news conference on Tuesday, ostensibly to describe his policy agenda. But reporters will have other things on their agendas, analysts said. “This will prevent him from laying out his economic and social program to the media,” said Christophe Barbier, the chief editor of L’Express, a French weekly newsmagazine. “He will be inaudible.” Mr. Barbier said voters might well hold Mr. Hollande’s carelessness in his personal life against him at the ballot box. The next scheduled election is in March when voters will choose mayors and city councilors across France; two months later there will be elections for representatives to the European Parliament. While the French are famously blasé about the sex lives of their leaders, this time could be different because the affair and Mr. Hollande’s reaction reinforce an existing, negative narrative. “They will hold it against Hollande,” said Mr. Barbier, because, as with other problems the president has encountered, “He reacts with a certain fatalism and he never wants to take the initiative first.” On the television channel France 5, Jean-François Copé, the chief of the opposition Union for a Popular Movement, called the revelations “disastrous” for the president’s image. “When you are president, you need to be very vigilant regarding those questions,” he said. Ms. Trierweiler, a journalist, has been a regular public presence since the presidential campaign in 2012 and participated in numerous official trips with Mr. Hollande. In the United States in September, she told The Huffington Post that Michelle Obama had been particularly supportive and helpful to her in figuring out how to handle herself as a first lady. In 2012, she caused a minor scandal when she endorsed a candidate running in a legislative election against Ségolène Royal, Mr. Hollande’s former partner. In October, Ms. Trierweiler accompanied Mr. Hollande to South Africa and appeared at his side when he met with President Jacob Zuma and his wife. She was invited to accompany Mr. Hollande to the United States on Feb. 11 for a state visit that was scheduled to include a state dinner. |