With a single tweet, France’s first lady managed Tuesday to take a swipe at her man’s ex, put herself publicly at odds with the president, and throw a spanner in the works of his Socialist party. Valerie Trierweiler posted an apparently innocent message on Twitter wishing a relatively unknown politician good luck in his bid to win a seat in the National Assembly in Sunday’s second round parliamentary vote.
But the tweet stunned France as it was obvious that the real target was Segolene Royal, the woman who shared President Francois Hollande’s life for three decades and is the mother of their four children.
Royal, who failed in 2007 to get herself elected president, is standing against Olivier Falorni, a Socialist dissident, for a parliamentary seat for the western town of La Rochelle. Hollande has publicly thrown his weight behind Royal, writing this week that she is “the only candidate of the presidential majority who can be assured of my support” in the constituency.
