"Valérie Trierweiler once called Ségolène Royal “the crazy woman of Poitou” and asked members of her partner’s communication team to keep them at arm’s length.
The two women — Ms. Trierweiler is the current partner of President François Hollande of France, and Ms. Royal is his former partner and the mother of his four children — are depicted in three recently published books as fierce rivals, and their animosity has been at the center of extensive news media attention in France this summer.
Since 2007, when Nicolas Sarkozy took office as president in the middle of a marital breakdown, French politics has taken on aspects of a television soap opera, complete with shifting couples and strained relationships. The most recent example adds spice to a mix that was also stirred by accusations of sexual misconduct against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who wanted to be president.
Recent headlines have included “The Poison of Jealousy” on the cover of the weekly L’Express and “Secrets of a Trio from Hell,” in the left-wing magazine Marianne.
The current wave of coverage started with a Twitter message. During the legislative campaign in the spring, Ms. Trierweiler, 47, angered at Mr. Hollande’s public support for Ms. Royal, sent a message effectively endorsing Ms. Royal’s opponent. This was doubly embarrassing because Ms. Royal, 58, was the official candidate of the Socialist Party and of Mr. Hollande, also 58. Ms. Royal ended up losing badly, so there was humiliation all around.
Mr. Hollande’s amorous life, and his decision to leave Ms. Royal for the younger Ms. Trierweiler, was already well ventilated during his successful presidential campaign. But he is facing a potentially more serious political issue now: The apparent intense rivalry between the women — with Ms. Trierweiler aggressively defending her new position as first partner — may have a slowly degrading effect on his self-styled image as a “normal man” who is now a “normal president.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/world/europe/in-france-women-close-to-president-hollande-cause-stir.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120911
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