On May 7, the new French President was elected. Socialist François Hollande won 52 percent of the votes, thus becoming the new head of the French state. The former leader, Nicolas Sarkozy, lost the elections by only 4 percent but despite the small difference, the events from the beginning of May 2012 show that the majority of the French people have supported the political change in the European republic.

Hollande’s political career turned out to consume his life. For eleven years between 1997 and 2008, he was the First Secretary of the Socialist Party as well as Deputy of the National Assembly of France. From 2001 to 2008, he was a Major of Tulle, and until the elections in 2012, President of the Corréze General Council.

However, some would agree that his personal life is much more interesting, especially for the tabloids. The French media kept a sharp eye on him for a long time, but in contrast to his predecessor, Hollande’s life has been less intriguing for several decades. Hollande spent more than thirty years together with his former wife Ségoléne Royal, so it was quite the surprise when only a month after his party lost the 2007 presidential elections, they announced their divorce.

Royal is a prominent French politician and a member of the Socialist party, just like Hollande. Only a few weeks after, the tabloids finally found their story on Hollande when the French media reported rumors about his relationship with a journalist, Valérie Trierweiler. The news was confirmed later in 2007 by Trierweiler personally.

Is it a problem that the new President of France is an unmarried divorcee? Maybe in other countries, but not in his, where most of the people believe that marriage and celibacy do not factor in success. However, as president and representative of his nation around the world, Hollande will face the same problem as Nikola Sarkozy, who married his third wife, Carla Bruni, only three months after they met. The reason – his better half was not allowed to accompany him as a First Lady of France because officially she was not his wife.

The situation of the former head of the European country was slightly different and more complicated. During Sarkozy’s presidential campaign and into the beginning of his office in 2007, Sarkozy was still married to his second wife, Cecilia Attias. Although 92 percent of the French people declared that the divorce did not change their attitude towards their leader, some specialists in this field claim that the personal problems of Sarkozy definitely affected his first and last presidential mandate.

For the time being, Valérie Trierweiler insists on being called Hollande’s companion. The couple announced publicly that they will not hastily wed. Yet, Trierweiler cannot become First Lady of France if she is not married to François Hollande. However, it looks like that she is not very interested in this title, which has more obligations than it seems.

But whether François and Valérie will follow the example of Nicolas and Carla remains a mystery for the French nation. Even the local media is not able to make exact predictions for their future.

Image Courtesy of  Matthieu Riegler, Wikimedia Commons [CC-BY-3.0 or CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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About the author

Sabina Peycheva
Hi! My name is Sabina and I'm 17. I'm from Bulgaria and I really want to become a journalist in the future. I like traveling, reading and watching movies (especially Korean ones). I love animals and I have three dogs and one cat.