French President Francois Hollande to face reporters after affair claims
When France's President Francois Hollande steps out before the waiting press Tuesday, it's his private life that will be making the headlines.
While he may want to talk about the state of the French economy, the gathered reporters will likely bay for answers about the president's alleged affair with a French actress.
This will be Hollande's first appearance before the press since the claims surfaced in the French tabloid Closer linking Hollande romantically to actress Julie Gayet.
The allegations, which emerged Friday, have sparked a media firestorm of a kind not normally seen in France, where privacy is closely guarded. They have also prompted the continued hospitalization of France's first lady, Valerie Trierweiler.
According to French national daily Le Monde, Hollande's news conference -- the first of 2014 -- was supposed to be a chance for the embattled president, who has seen his popularity slump since his 2012 election, to relaunch his agenda.
Instead, it is a "catastrophic scenario," the newspaper reports, where he will instead seek to deal with questions about his private life as briefly as possible and turn the focus back to economic matters.
Jean-Francois Cope, leaders of the opposition UMP, told television channel France 5 over the weekend that the claims were "disastrous for the image of the presidential office," adding that the story was dominating international media coverage of France.
Hospitalization
Patrice Biancone, head of Trierweiler's Elysee office, told CNN on Sunday that the first lady had been in hospital since Friday. He said she "needed rest" and that it was hoped she would leave hospital early this week.
"We all know why she went in after the story came out," said Biancone, clearly making the link between the revelations of the magazine and Trierweiler's hospitalization.
Trierweiler and Hollande are not married but live together, and she makes official state appearances. They met when she was a reporter for Paris Match magazine, a publication she still works for.
Hollande, 59, left his longtime common-law wife, Segolene Royal -- the mother of his four children -- for Trierweiler, 48, before the 2012 presidential election.
Right to privacy
Closer reported Hollande had been slipping out of the back door of the Elysee Palace and hopping on a motor scooter driven by a bodyguard to Gayet's apartment. The magazine also reported the bodyguard brought croissants to the apartment one morning.
The story has prompted questions in French media about the president's right to privacy, whether his security may have been jeopardized during his alleged liaisons and about Trierweiler's future status as first lady.
Hollande has not confirmed or denied the alleged affair but has threatened legal action. A statement from his entourage Friday to news agency Agence France Presse said the president "deeply condemns the attacks on the right to privacy which he has a right to like every other citizen."
A survey last month by French polling organization Ifop gave Hollande an approval rating of 22%, a rise of two points from the previous month, when he hit a record low.
