Is this the Élysée or Melrose Place?

The French papers can hardly contain their excitement this morning over the catty details of the first scandal to come out of the Élysée Palace since the election of Socialist François Hollande – the self-styled “Mr. Normal”.

Journalist Valerie Trierweiler, Hollande’s partner (Americans – ‘partner’ is French for ‘unmarried fornicator’) made the faux pas of endorsing a rebel challenger to Socialist party standardbearer Segolene Royal in this Sunday’s elections for the French Parliament. This might seem fairly uninteresting, until you add the fact that Royale, herself the 2007 presidential candidate for the Socialists, is the former partner of Hollande and they have four children together.

The offending endorsement of challenger Olivier Falorni from the French first lady was made in a tweet posted by Trierweiler yesterday. The reaction from Hollande’s fellow Socialists has been furious. They have pointed out that not only has the tweet exacerbated the inter-party tensions and in a way that could cost the Socialists seats on Sunday, it also seems grotesque on a personal level. For the first lady to go out of her way to publicly insult and humiliate the mother of her partner’s four children seems exceptionally cruel, French politician Daniel Cohn Bennett said. But it seems entirely consistent with her previous behaviour toward Royal (more on that later).

Move over Somalia, Sarko's after the cyber-pirates Now

My twitter erupted with activity yesterday as news spread that the French lower house had at long last passed the much-maligned Hadopi bill, the hugely controversial legislation that would ban people from using the internet if they are caught repeatedly downloading files illegally.

This was the third attempt to pass the measure, but the third time was the charm and since it’s already passed the French senate, Sarkozy’s piracy-busting measure will now become law. It will be the toughest anti-internet piracy legislation in the world. The slow journey of this legislation has been closely watched by other European countries and now that the precedent has been set, they will now likely enact their own similar laws.

The bill, named after the new anti-piracy government agency it will create, would permit authorities to impose a variety of penalties on people caught downloading illegally including cutting off their internet connection for a year, imposing fines of hundreds of thousands of euros, and even jailing them for two years.

The Sarkozy show comes to London

Nuclear collaboration, economic turmoil and an EU army may have been at the top of the agenda for French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s official visit to London this week, but for the British media there was only one thing at the top of their agenda: Carla Bruni. The former supermodel singer and now first lady of France has dominated coverage of the visit. In fact the couple were greeted in London with naked photos of the first lady plastered all over the front pages of the British tabloids – one of the many nude photos of Bruni floating around out there is being auctioned in New York this week.

Out for drinks with some American friends last night, they expressed frustration that such trivial tabloid fare was dominating the coverage of this important state visit. Granted it is all rather silly, with some news reports even calling Bruni “France’s Princess Diana” (a stretch to say the least!) But Bruni’s visit was actually important for a clear reason: Sarko’s ‘celebrity’ lifestyle and his whirlwind courtship and marriage to Bruni following his divorce has invited the scorn of the French population which has seen his behavior as decidedly unpresidential. The visit to Windsor Castle to meet with Queen Elizabeth II needed to bring respectability back to the office and demonstrate to the French people that both Sarkozy and Bruni, whose former boyfriends have included Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, could be taken seriously on the world stage. Essentially it wasn’t such a difficult mission, all they had to do was show up dressed appropriately and not screw up. But part of Bruni’s mission was to look elegant and sophisticated next to the Queen, and she seems to have succeeded in that.

French president to marry supermodel

The French press reported today that President Nicolas Sarkozy is going to marry the celebrity model Carla Bruni in February, just two months after they met.

French media first breathlessly reported the budding relationship in December when the two made a highly visable trip to Euro Disneyland. The relationship is all the more interesting because Sarkozy was just divorced by his wife Cecilia in October. At that time the public also learned that the marriage had been effectively over throughout the presidential election but it was kept a secret for fear of how it would affect the vote.

The Elysée Palace refused to comment yesterday on the news, but Bruni's mother, Marisa Borini, told the Italian press last week that President Sarkozy had asked her for her daughter's hand.

The president and the supermodel

There’s something about heads of state dating that’s so exciting! The headline grabbing divorce of French president Nicolas Sarkozy from wife Cecilia meant that Sarkozy became, more or less, “the most powerful bachelor in the world.”

But now it’s looking like that singleness didn’t last very long, as Paris is abuzz today over rumours that Sarko’s new girlfriend is Carla Bruni, the famous Italian model and singer (pictured at right - doesn't Laura Bush have that same outfit?). L’Express reported today that the relationship has been confirmed and nearly all the French glossies are going to run cover stories on it this week.
Given Sarko’s incredibly busy schedule it’s hard to understand how he could possibly have time for all this romancing. But Certain Ideas of Europe noted today with some amusement that apparently the way the couple has chosen to publicize their relationship is through a highly visible visit to – where else – Euro Disneyland. Given the French perception of “Sarko L’American,” that will certainly play a part in the press coverage. Perhaps Sarko just couldn’t resist the irony – debuting your glamorous model girlfriend by taking her on a visit to the tackiest place on earth.