The French love a conspiracy theory. No wonder, then, that, right from the start, Francois Hollande and his most trusted Elysee staff were - and still are - convinced that the whole Paparazzo Fiasco, revealing his nights out with the actress Julie Gayet (still merrily trending as gayetgate on Twitter) had been masterminded by none other than Nicolas Sarkozy.
A variation, put about by both the militant wing of the Socialist party, and some unnamed friends of the embattled (soon-to-be-ex?) First Girlfriend, still raged at France's police force, but named the current Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, a law-and-order type far more popular than his boss. Valls, they believe, is the sinister party bent on ruining a lacklustre leader whose job he allegedly covets. ("Moi?" was the gist of Valls's public reaction when it was hinted that he'd let the president score an own goal rather than recommend prudence.)
But Hollande himself - perhaps recalling that Valls had been a very efficient campaign manager, never forgetting among other duties to straighten the candidate's notoriously askew tie before every rally, had no doubts.
A regular Elysee visitor recalls that the evening before last week's Closer magazine came out, the moped-friendly president raged, of his predecessor, "Half the police brass are still Sarkozy's friends! They leaked the information for him! Only last week I know he told supporters to 'read the celebrity magazines' because they 'might find them amusing'!" Hollande had been hoping to make history by announcing a social-democrat-style economic U-turn in his first press conference of the year. Suddenly awakened to the need to revive the lagging French economy by lowering corporate taxes as well as cutting spending by 50 billion euros, he was perhaps aiming to replicate the great Mitterrand U-turn of 1983, when the Left's sweeping nationalisations and currency controls programme was suddenly halted, under the guidance of then finance minister Jacques Delors (and the merest nudge from the IMF).
Le Gayetgate comprehensively scuppered his plans. Yet, holding the longest press conference in presidential history, Hollande stonewalled but did not deny the facts, only bemoaning the infringement of his "right to a private life". He had, in fact, been informed that Closer had a lot more material, some of which it duly published last Friday. Closer's latest instalment on Friday (the editor, Laurence Pieau, tantalisingly promises "more scoops" in coming weeks) claims that, reverting to time-honoured form, the president, far from indulging in a mere fling, had in fact been conducting a two-year secret affair, complete with weekends on the Riviera and hand-in-hand strolls in Hollande's constituency, with separated mother-of-two Gayet.
Read more Francois Hollande: The witty seducer behind a French farce - World - DNA
A variation, put about by both the militant wing of the Socialist party, and some unnamed friends of the embattled (soon-to-be-ex?) First Girlfriend, still raged at France's police force, but named the current Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, a law-and-order type far more popular than his boss. Valls, they believe, is the sinister party bent on ruining a lacklustre leader whose job he allegedly covets. ("Moi?" was the gist of Valls's public reaction when it was hinted that he'd let the president score an own goal rather than recommend prudence.)
But Hollande himself - perhaps recalling that Valls had been a very efficient campaign manager, never forgetting among other duties to straighten the candidate's notoriously askew tie before every rally, had no doubts.
A regular Elysee visitor recalls that the evening before last week's Closer magazine came out, the moped-friendly president raged, of his predecessor, "Half the police brass are still Sarkozy's friends! They leaked the information for him! Only last week I know he told supporters to 'read the celebrity magazines' because they 'might find them amusing'!" Hollande had been hoping to make history by announcing a social-democrat-style economic U-turn in his first press conference of the year. Suddenly awakened to the need to revive the lagging French economy by lowering corporate taxes as well as cutting spending by 50 billion euros, he was perhaps aiming to replicate the great Mitterrand U-turn of 1983, when the Left's sweeping nationalisations and currency controls programme was suddenly halted, under the guidance of then finance minister Jacques Delors (and the merest nudge from the IMF).
Le Gayetgate comprehensively scuppered his plans. Yet, holding the longest press conference in presidential history, Hollande stonewalled but did not deny the facts, only bemoaning the infringement of his "right to a private life". He had, in fact, been informed that Closer had a lot more material, some of which it duly published last Friday. Closer's latest instalment on Friday (the editor, Laurence Pieau, tantalisingly promises "more scoops" in coming weeks) claims that, reverting to time-honoured form, the president, far from indulging in a mere fling, had in fact been conducting a two-year secret affair, complete with weekends on the Riviera and hand-in-hand strolls in Hollande's constituency, with separated mother-of-two Gayet.
Read more Francois Hollande: The witty seducer behind a French farce - World - DNA
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