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Subscribe to RSSThe current First Lady of France, Valerie Trierweiler, and the former, Carla Bruni, have captivated the world. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Updated at 09:55 a.m. ET Tuesday: Just as we were getting used to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Napoleonic style, rather large ears and twitchy manner, and his knock-out French-Italian wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s catwalk charm, breathless voice and bling, it’s out with the old and in with the new.
On Tuesday, Francois Hollande, so bland a politician that he turned “Monsieur Normal” into a cool campaign moniker, was inaugurated as the ninth president since the larger-than-life Charles de Gaulle created the Fifth Republic in 1958. But He is the very first to assume France’s most powerful job… unmarried.
And unheard of. Even the Musketeer-like Sarkozy rushed to divorce his long-time spouse, Cecilia, and marry the celebrity Bruni just to do the honorable thing. But Hollande – a self-proclaimed social Democrat – will enter the Elysee Palace, not with a spouse at his side, but with a twice-divorced “partner”: Valerie Trierweiler, an elegant but take-no-prisoners reporter who, at 47, is 10 years younger than Hollande. They’ve been a couple since Hollande left his ex-PARTNER of some 30 years, Segolene Royale -- the French Socialist politician, former presidential candidate, and mother of his four grown children. (She, like Hollande, has never married.)
Louise Roug of Newsweek and the Daily Beast discusses whether there will be a fiscal revolution in France following Francois Hollande's victory in the country's recent presidential elections.
Trierweiler, the next first lady -- or ‘Premiere Dame’ -- brings her own baggage into this unusual presidential relationship. Having worked all of her adult life to support her three boys, she says she has no intention of “retiring” as first lady – a ceremonial, non-job in France with no bureau, staff or real budget – or of living off the state.
“I think she wants to remain herself,” said French author and political analyst Nicole Bacharan. ‘Which is already a challenge as a first lady. She wants to remain true to the kind of mother she is and professional woman she is.’’
A challenge, that will be. When asked how the unmarried couple could pay state visits, for instance, to conservative Arab countries or the pope, Trierweiler dismissed the need for such travel and warned that she and Hollande would never marry under pressure “of protocol.” Now, such an attitude will no doubt shock some of the more straight-laced among us. But Bacharan believes the American public will by and large take to this smart, independent, working French mom with the chic neck scarves. She’s got what it takes to make her own mark, but in a very un-Bruni way. ‘’Trierweiler doesn’t seek celebrity. She doesn’t seek the limelight. She has fallen in love with this man who happens to be the president of France, but she wants to play a low, discreet role,” said Bacharan.
In this sense she should hit it off with the U.S. first lady, Michelle Obama, when the two are expected to meet at Camp David next week -- the French first couple’s first foreign visit. Both women are educated, articulate and independent, middle-class mothers who influence their "significant others" mostly from the sidelines, and in private. Trierweiler, a media professional for more than 20 years, has already improved Hollande’s image -- his slimmer looks, modern glasses and better-fitting suits all have her stamp of approval. "I think she’s very smart, very protective," said Chris Dickey, Newsweek’s Paris correspondent. "She not only asserts her influence -- she protects her influence of her partner.’’
Lemouton Stephane / Abaca file
Valerie Trierweiler
Hollande’s comfortable defeat of the conservative Sarkozy -- as anticipated as it was -- has shaken Europe’s status quo. And his contentious tax-and-spend approach to growth and deficit reduction has triggered a hot debate on both sides of the pond. But it’s unclear how much -- if at all -- Trierweiler’s ideas have influenced Hollande’s leftist politics, or his economics. Refreshingly, their bond seems -- above all else -- to be emotional. "I didn’t choose to have a public life," she’s told a French magazine. "I chose Francois. But I will adapt." And who would’ve guessed that, behind Hollande’s gravely voice and charmless demeanor, there breathes ... a romantic? "It’s very rare to succeed professionally AND meet the woman of your life," Hollande confided to a French newspaper. "That chance is fleeting, but I chose to seize it!"
In fact, "Mr. and Ms. Normal" are anything but, even by French standards: an unmarried presidential couple with seven children, two ex-husbands and an ex-partner who happens to be an arch- rival, between them. But, let’s cut the new stars of the global political stage some slack. They are, after all, French -- for whom "doing it your way" is the 11th commandment. And when it comes to the French presidency -- a depository of dead war heroes, resistance leaders and monster egos -- an unassuming bureaucrat and his discreet -- if feisty -- partner, both with complicated personal lives, may fool us all and actually bring the "normalcy" that most French voters wanted. Now wouldn’t THAT be abnormal?
Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London who has covered France since the 1970s.
Leave a Comment:
oregonjoker - you sir are sickening calling a woman that name - you are a mysogynist and I pity your mate
get lost you are a disgusting representative of the human race Give your real name so your neighbors would know you instead of hiding behind your ridiculous tag - I would guess they would be surprised knowing many free thinking Oregonians that you walk amongst them
You sir leave a bad taste in my mouth - talk about narrow minded bigotry - for shame! Yuk!
@Barbara --- Chill out lady and get a life. Opinions vary ---Who died and left you in charge? Your pompous arrogance is showing.
Is it me, or are the French truly nucking futz?
It's you.
Hopefully the rest of the world will be saying the same thing about Obama next year:
"Just as they were getting used to President Obama's rather large ears .... it’s out with the old and in with the new."
I pray to God above it will be out with the old and in with the new!
Unmarried couple!??? OMG! This is the end of the world! What next? Two gay persons as Germany's Secretary of State and companion!? Unthinkable in USA! The Land of the Hypocritical Free! LOL
I wonder if the author will write an article that retracts everything he wrote? Because the French are about to find there is no such thing as a politician without a super-ego and his partner is going to come across as a major pain when they start realizing her attitude has something to do with eating cake. Case in point is how "she" made him slimmer, updated his glasses, made him wear suits that fit, and transformed him from dry to charismatic. They sound like Michelle and President Obama's French twins.
Marvelous.......a socialist liberal democrat. I love the people in France but I think they have made a mistake that they will pay dearly for in the future.... think Greece.
I hope it works out but history has shown that it won't. I just hope we aren't stupid enough to bail them out when the time comes like we have everything else in the world here lately. Even when the OPEC countries that wanted us to send all those missiles into Egypt at $1M each we were too stupid to at least ask them to pay the tab. The rest of the world must think we are fools.
Who cares if they marry or not? Marriage can ruin a good relationship. It is only a piece of paper that says "marriage license"..isn't worth the paper it is printed on. What matters is what is in the heart of a man. If they love each other and are happy, so be it. They will probably last longer than most "married couples".
They have no respect for themselves or ther partner. This is the modern world of me first and to hell with everyone else. The Governor of New York is living in sin in the Governors Mansion. What role models we have today with men and women sleeping together and having illigetimate children for others to raise and support. No morals, no values and these are our leaders????? God help us all. He is the only salvation. We fix our animals but allow people to procreate with whomever holds still long enough. Then when the fun is gone we move on to another....partner. Disgusting dogs.
Yes, God help us may be in order. But remember, we are not to judge.
God ain't gonna help us u fool! He's too busy screwing around in Bangkok! Or Nevada.
It's a good thing they don't live in North Carolina. Their "union" would be illegal. Go French, down with the antiquated, ridiculous, pseudo-religious, BS we have in NC> I wanted to write more but I'm gagging and need to leave the room after reading your comments.
We can beat the French with a trasgendered president one of these days.
That's French for....... "Their Shackin up" !
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That's so chic and throughly Euro-stylish, don't you think ?
Dogs do it, so why not ?
I'd do her doggy in a NY minute
First tramp of France.
screw the frogs! who cares what they think or do? Been a 4th rate power ever since they sold out to Hitler.
"i wanna a euro trash girl"
This story is about the new French president and he's single and he has a girlfriend. oh wow.
Wait, we in America still value marriage and our political leaders representing what is important. I do respect her intentions to continue to work and support her family, but saying America will accept this because they're unmarried and avoiding 'protocol' is disrespectful to those of us who continue to value marriage. I don't find their situation 'romantic', and what about the woman he left and the children he had with her. What you call 'romantic' is a complicated mess and a slap in the face to the mother of his children.
I'm a good Christian woman who values marriage. I wouldn't mind one day having a single President, but his woman needs her own place. She shouldn't stay in the White House and our money shouldn't help pay for her living expenses. Just a hypothetical. God blessed me to see someone other than Caucasian in the White House, maybe a single President is in our future. Who knows?
The really interesting question is how does a journalist, whose duty is to report the news, manage to maintain a personal relationship with a man who knows so many state secrets? Even something as casual as a social meeting with Michelle Obama - will she do an up-close-and-personal report on our First Lady or keep her thoughts to herself?
I'm glad they're not bowing to the pressure of some antiquated protocol. Maybe they can set an example for the whole world with their relationship by showing that a woman shouldn't lose her identity just because she's attached to a man in power. America's along with most of the world, still in the dark ages in its attitudes about relationships and how two consenting adults chose to handle their personal relationship. Marriage is overrated. And by the way, Homosexuals aren't a threat to marriage, its the fact that as far as we've progressed, the institution hasn't. People are turning away from it more and more because the institution can seem to adapt itself to modern life. If it becomes obsolete don't go blaming homosexuals. This is from a straight woman!
What would we do without our "progressive" contingent????
Sarkozy,,,Keep you're shoes polished,,,you'll be back!!!
France, a nation is decline. When the going gets tough, the French go on strike or vacation. About the only redeeming factor is their reasonably good cheap table wine. After 17 years in Europe I found the best part of France was the most direct route to Germany and the Czech Republic.
France was a worthless Nation prior to WWII and an even more worthless Nation since. The citizens of France have a sense of entitlement and deserve whatever they get in spades. Phoock them and their First Ho.
Obama is hoping the new French president finds some nice young man.
Oh, pfft, "unheard of".
It's unheard of in the USA, most of us here in Europe actually realize we're in the 21st century and care little for things like that.
Speak for yourself!
Genuinely pleasant article about the new French Leader -- He is a friend to cultural diversity, history and education....I believe France will find him a subtle but deftly effective leader in a time when the world is short of good leadership
"Unmarried First Lady" is an oxymoron.
Sounds classy, like a return of the The Vichy regime.
Watch and observe as this socialist dolt leads the decline and collapse of the Euro .