The French President's Alleged Lover, Julie Gayet, and the Ethics Issues That Have Risen (Oui, Even in France) Over François Hollande's 'Mafia Flat' Trysts

Ever since the magazine Closer revealed that President François Hollande has a mistress (allegations which sent Valérie Trierweiler to a Paris hospital) — thus proving that in the internet age France can no longer hide their leaders' piccadilloes — a number of ethics issues have surfaced, write Le Monde's Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme: Notably reports of a 'tryst in a mafia flat'.

A lot of readers are defending François Hollande with regards to his relationship with the actress Julie Gayet, and I wouldn't be surprised if his (poor) polls go up over the affair (pun intended) — although Closer's own (non-scientific) online poll seems to say quite the opposite. (One Le Monde reader, David_Paris, even sounds downright — quelle horreur — American:  «La séparation "vie privée"-"vie publique" est stupide. S'il trompe la "femme de sa vie", pourquoi ne pourrait-il pas tromper son électorat?») Meanwhile, IBT's Samantha Payne tries to answer the question, Who Is Julie Gayet, Alleged Lover of French President Francois Hollande? (photos).

Everyone in the Élysée is concerned with how much time questions on the matter will take during le président's press conference Tuesday.

L'affaire de la liaison supposée de François Hollande avec l'actrice Julie Gayet soulève de nombreuses questions. Le Monde a enquêté sur les dysfonctionnements à l'Elysée liés à cette affaire.

• A qui appartient l'appartement parisien de la rue du Cirque, dans le 8^e arrondissement ?

… La comédienne Julie Gayet, amie d'Emmanuelle Hauck, travaillait régulièrement dans cet appartement, depuis que ses bureaux de la rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré faisaient l'objet de travaux. François Hollande s'est rendu une dizaine de fois dans cet appartement depuis l'automne 2013, d'après des éléments recueillis à l'Elysée par Le Monde. Le président, amateur de deux-roues, a utilisé, comme passager, un scooter appartenant à la flotte de l'Elysée, conduit par un membre de sa sécurité. Un second équipage assurait en outre la protection de M. Hollande.

Lire : Gayet-Hollande : interrogations autour de l'appartement

• Quel est le lien éventuel avec le banditisme corse ?

Il est indirect et fortuit. Il se trouve qu'Emmanuelle Hauck, née à Bastia, a vécu avec l'acteur Michel Ferracci, apparu notamment dans la série « Mafiosa », diffusée depuis 2006 sur Canal+. Or M. Ferracci a été condamné, au mois de novembre 2013, à dix-huit mois de prison avec sursis pour abus de confiance dans l'affaire du cercle Wagram. Il fut directeur des jeux de cet établissement, théâtre de détournements de fonds au profit de membres du gang corse de la Brise de mer.

  … après sa rupture avec Michel Ferracci, Emmanuelle Hauck était devenue la compagne de François Masini, au profil éminemment sulfureux. François Masini a été tué par balle, sur une route de Haute-Corse, le 31 mai 2013. …

• Le service de sécurité du président a-t-il été défaillant ?

François Hollande est constamment protégé. Il a notamment à ses côtés deux hommes, des policiers de confiance qu'il a personnellement choisis.   Ceux-ci l'escortent dans tous ses déplacements privés. C'était le cas lors de ses visites rue du Cirque. Mais ces policiers n'ont pas enquêté sur le passé de la locataire de l'appartement, ni sur ses liens avec des individus au profil sulfureux. Ils n'ont pas su, non plus, repérer les paparazzi qui traquent François Hollande. Ceux-ci auraient loué un appartement à proximité pour les besoins de leur reportage.

Cela faisait de longs mois, déjà, que la rumeur parisienne propageait l'existence supposée d'une liaison entre M. Hollande et M^me Gayet. …

• Que savaient exactement François Hollande et Manuel Valls ?

François Hollande, d'après l'Elysée, n'a jamais eu connaissance des liens entre la locataire de l'appartement, Emmanuelle Hauck, et certaines personnes réputées proches du banditisme corse. Ainsi, fait observer l'entourage de M. Hollande, le nom de Ferraci n'apparaît pas sur l'interphone de l'appartement. Le président n'avait connaissance que de l'identité de la locataire du logement, M^me Hauck, amie de longue date de M^me Gayet.

Lire l'analyse : Scénario catastrophe pour le président avant sa conférence de presse …

• Le magazine Closer a-t-il pu être instrumentalisé par des rivaux de M. Hollande ?

C'est une interrogation majeure, à l'Elysée, où l'on se penche sur le processus mis en œuvre à l'occasion du reportage de l'hebdomadaire people. A Paris, ces derniers mois, les rumeurs sur la liaison supposée du président ont été relatées par plusieurs relais sarkozystes de premier plan.
Or François Hollande a toujours considéré Nicolas Sarkozy comme son principal rival, en vue d'une future réelection, en 2017. Il lui a toujours prêté aussi un fort pouvoir de nuisance, lié à son passé Place Beauvau et à ses amitiés avec des responsables policiers de premier plan. En effet, l'ancien locataire de l'Elysée a conservé de puissants soutiens au sein de la police, dont une partie des effectifs resteraient acquis à M. Sarkozy.

Obama Delighted to Meet France's Socialist Leader, Who Vows to Support BHO "For as Long as Possible"

According to Le Monde's Corine Lesnes and Thomas Wieder, Barack Obama is delighted to find in François Hollande a man of similar outlooks, with Hillary Clinton explaining the two leftist presidents were spending "a marvelous moment together during a marvelous day" (translated back from the French).

France's socialist president "is even bringing hardly-disguised support to Barack Obama" for the November elections — not to Mitt Romney nor to the United States proper — as he expresses his hope that their partnership "will last long" and that his meetings with the One will continue "to last the longest time possible".

As for Iran, "Barack Obama has reason to be satisifed" as Hollande's foreign policy is closer to Obama's weak soft approach than to Nicolas Sarkozy's "backbone of steel."

That is all regarding the 2012 election, however. Notwithstanding the fact that Obama seems to be interested in little else but his campaign for reelection, some things that other people would find more important, such as Afghanistan, are a different matter, as Dave Boyer points out (merci à Duncan):

…the path ahead [regarding Afghanistan] is far from certain. As if to underscore the problems remaining, new French President Francois Hollande skipped Mr. Obama’s remarks at Monday’s session, arriving to take his seat only after Mr. Obama had finished speaking. Mr. Hollande campaigned on a pledge to remove France’s 3,400 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and he has publicly resisted efforts by Mr. Obama to reconsider his vow.

But of course, such things hardly matter when the really important issues in this day and age — for the White House, for the nation, for the entire planet — concern… getting Barack Obama reelected to a second term.


Back to Le Monde:

… tout était fait pour que les quelques journalistes qui avaient eu le privilège d'approcher la petite troupe croient M^me Clinton sur parole quand elle leur expliqua qu'ils passaient ensemble un "moment merveilleux dans une journée merveilleuse".

En assistant à ce spectacle, et en apprenant que François Hollande s'était vu proposer de dormir à Blair House dès le jeudi soir (mais il avait préféré arriver aux Etats-Unis le vendredi matin), on se posait une question : Barack Obama ne cherche-t-il pas à se rattraper après avoir affiché son soutien à Nicolas Sarkozy pendant la campagne présidentielle ? "La Maison Blanche reconnaît l'importance du président de la France et des problèmes mondiaux qui sont devant nous", rectifie un officiel américain. De son côté, François Hollande a indiqué qu'il comprenait que les chefs d'Etat parlent plutôt aux chefs d'Etat qu'aux candidats.

… le président français a même apporté un soutien à peine déguisé à Barack Obama, qui a pour horizon la présidentielle de novembre. Dans le bureau Ovale, quand il a souhaité que leurs rencontres se poursuivent "le plus longtemps possible". Et devant les Français, quand il a dit : "Nous avons engagé un partenariat avec le président Obama qui, je l'espère pour lui, et pour nous, durera longtemps."

Sur le fond, l'heure était à l'affichage des points d'accord. En matière économique, d'abord. Concernant la situation de la zone euro, le président français a ainsi souligné qu'ils ont "la même conviction que la Grèce doit rester dans la zone euro". Plus largement, "la croissance doit être une priorité, en même temps que nous mettons en ordre nos comptes publics à travers des pactes budgétaires", a déclaré François Hollande, en se félicitant que, "sur cette dimension de croissance, le président Obama a pu marquer une convergence".

Même si les propos sont restés assez généraux, il était important, pour M. Hollande, qu'ils fussent prononcés : le chef de l'Etat peut se prévaloir d'avoir un allié de poids dans sa condamnation des politiques d'austérité, ce qui lui donne un atout à la veille du marathon diplomatique qui doit l'amener à proposer à ses partenaires européens la "renégociation" du traité de discipline budgétaire.

Dans le domaine stratégique, les deux hommes ont également pris acte d'un point d'accord important. Il concerne l'Iran. François Hollande a donné sa position : "Que la négociation puisse s'engager mais avec la fermeté indispensable pour qu'il n'y ait à aucun moment l'accès de l'Iran à la technologie nucléaire à des fins militaires." Barack Obama a des raisons d'être satisfait : à l'égard de Téhéran, le nouveau chef de l'Etat français est davantage sur sa ligne que ne l'était Nicolas Sarkozy, qui est pleuré chez les conservateurs, désolés d'avoir perdu "la colonne vertébrale en acier" des grandes puissances qui négocient avec l'Iran.

Devastating News of the French Budget Minister's Secret Bank Account in Switzerland: "The Left's Entire Reform Movement Has Been Disgraced"

The huge scandal rocking the French government for the past couple of weeks is typical of the laws being for the common man and not for the (law-making) élites. A socialist government member, the country's budget minister no less — you know the type of leftist urging the people to be virtuous and upright citizens, to pay their taxes, and not to engage in fiscal fraud — has finally had to admit, after resigning that he has a bank account in Switzerland.

While the Jacques Cahuzac scandal is taking a heavy toll in François "I do not like rich people" Hollande's administration, with interior minister Manuel Valls denying any knowledge of the matter and Pierre Moscovici claiming that his earlier attempts to defend Jacques Cahuzac were part of a conspiracy to "use" him (i.e., to use Pierre Moscovici), in other news we learn that Jean-Jacques Augier (François Hollande's campaign treasurer!!) is known to have… invested in the Cayman Islands.

While Plantu delivers a stinging cartoon (drawing on the — historical — parallel between the Swiss flag and the Red Cross), the conclusion of François Chérèque (président de Terra Nova, ancien secrétaire général de la CFDT): "C'est toute la gauche réformiste qui est humiliée"— it's the left's entire reform movement which has been disgraced.

As for Le Monde, the daily in no way lets François "I do not like rich people" Hollande off the hook: an editorial states that we cannot tell which is worse: either the president knew, and he has been covering a lie, or he didn't  know, and he is incompetent…

Après quatre mois de dénégations solennelles, l'aveu par Jérôme Cahuzac qu'il possédait bien un compte bancaire à l'étranger est dévastateur.

Pour l'ancien ministre, foudroyé par sa faute et son mensonge. Pour le chef de l'Etat et le premier ministre, dont l'autorité a été bafouée. Pour l'Assemblée nationale, dont la confiance a été trahie. Pour tous les responsables politiques, enfin, que les Français mettront, plus que jamais, dans le même sac.

… "Faute morale impardonnable", a tranché le président de la République. Certes. Mais dont il est désormais le premier comptable. Le scandale Cahuzac est devenu, dans l'instant, l'affaire de François Hollande. Elle l'atteint au coeur même de son pouvoir.

    Depuis dix mois, la perte de crédit du chef de l'Etat était déjà profonde et handicapait son action. Elle risque de devenir abyssale, paralysante. Aux yeux des Français, soit il a été naïf ou incompétent, soit il a, peu ou prou, couvert ce mensonge. Dans les deux cas, la faute est lourde.

Tout aussi calamiteux : Jérôme Cahuzac était l'un des principaux artisans et l'un des meilleurs avocats de la politique économique menée par le gouvernement. Comment les citoyens ne seraient-ils pas écoeurés ou révoltés de constater que le grand argentier de l'Etat s'était froidement affranchi de la rigueur et des efforts qu'il leur réclamait ? Comment espérer convaincre, désormais, que la "justice" est au coeur du redressement ?

A la crise économique et sociale dans laquelle est plongée la France, au climat politique qui avait pris un tour délétère depuis peu, s'ajoute désormais une profonde crise démocratique, tant le plus élémentaire contrat de confiance entre le peuple et ses gouvernants est rompu.

La responsabilité du président de la République est, aujourd'hui, d'y répondre. Elle est immense. Elle est immédiate. Mais elle s'impose à François Hollande s'il veut éviter au pays des catastrophes politiques et une régression démocratique plus graves encore.

Update: the BBC reports that

French newspapers are calling it the biggest political crisis for Mr Hollande since his election last year, the AFP news agency reports.

He had promised voters morality and integrity in public life after what were nicknamed the "bling-bling" years of his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

But this year Mr Hollande's opinion poll ratings have slumped, as the country remains mired in recession and unemployment at 10.6%.

 … But Mr Hollande's administration has been chasing the wealthy with such investments abroad, our correspondent says. So Mr Augier's affairs are a problem for him.

Update: "We Are Stark Naked, Hollande Is Stark Naked, the Left Is Stark Naked"

Hollande's First Year in Power

After 12 months in the Élysée palace, François Hollande can only be said to have had a disastrous first year — as depicted as a typical Frenchman on the cover of Courrier International (obrigado para Underscore), albeit with hardly a seductive facial expression, a presentable loaf of baguette, and a ridable (tricolored) bicycle.
One year in, writes Anne-Elisabeth Moutet in the Daily Telegraph (merci à Evelyne), François Hollande has "alienated most voters, antagonised Angela Merkel, driven droves of French into exile and presided over a worsening economy": "Mr Normal has become the Pitiful President"

With hindsight, it seems as if François Hollande’s troubles started the day he was inaugurated, on May 15 2012. First he was drenched by a surprise storm as his open Citroën drove up the Champs-Elysées. Then, the very same day, his Falcon plane was hit by lightning on the way to Berlin, where he was scheduled to meet Angela Merkel – making it possibly the first and last time the German Chancellor has felt unreserved sympathy for him.

The new president had to turn back before travelling to Berlin in another aircraft. When he got there – in more pouring rain – he missed a turn on the airfield red carpet while reviewing German troops, and had to be steered back in the right direction by Mrs Merkel’s firm grip on his elbow, a moment that presciently symbolised their future relationship.

And everything went downhill from there.

One year later, the man who had billed himself as the “normal president” during his victorious campaign against Nicolas Sarkozy is breaking records for unpopularity. With 75 per cent against him, Hollande is scoring the lowest approval ratings of any president of the Fifth Republic since the country started conducting polls. Unemployment has risen by 11.5 per cent since his election, reaching an all-time high of 3.2 million. An estimated 150,000 young people have left the country in search of better prospects abroad: the only jobs created in France have been in the public sector, usually in fields such as teaching that are solidly controlled by Socialist voters.

Despite a widely touted “austerity” drive, public spending stands at 57 per cent of GDP – the figure in Britain is 45 per cent – and the country’s public debt is about to reach 94 per cent of GDP. The largest street demonstrations since 1984 – when the country also had a Socialist president, François Mitterrand – have brought more than a million people on to the streets of Paris on two occasions (and more are planned), to protest against justice minister Christiane Taubira’s new law on gay marriage and adoption: given that France is a fairly tolerant society, these were effectively a street referendum against Hollande.

 … Despite a widely touted “austerity” drive, public spending stands at 57 per cent of GDP – the figure in Britain is 45 per cent – and the country’s public debt is about to reach 94 per cent of GDP. The largest street demonstrations since 1984 – when the country also had a Socialist president, François Mitterrand – have brought more than a million people on to the streets of Paris on two occasions (and more are planned), to protest against justice minister Christiane Taubira’s new law on gay marriage and adoption: given that France is a fairly tolerant society, these were effectively a street referendum against Hollande.

 … “The country is drowning in an ocean of discouragement,” said Christophe Barbier, the influential editor of L’Express. “It’s not just the tax-avoiding rich, artists like Gérard Depardieu, businessmen – everyone is now tempted to leave for a better life elsewhere. Young people feel they will never get a break, a job, a sign of trust. Entrepreneurs have to fend off red tape, rising costs and levies.”

In April, to add to this toxic climate, came the Cahuzac scandal: France’s budget minister, the man in charge of fighting tax fraud, was revealed to have a secret bank account in Switzerland – and in all likelihood another in Singapore – and to have lied to the president and parliament about it.

In the past week, polls have given Marine Le Pen, the far-Right National Front leader, record numbers in a hypothetical presidential election – 23 per cent, well above Hollande at 19 per cent, while Sarkozy scored 34 per cent. Were Sarkozy to stand, he would beat Le Pen easily in the second round but the talk in France has been of the dangers of Fascism, beginning with the very real distrust of all politicians and of the ruling class.

François Hollande Anti-American? French Socialist Vows to Aid Barack Obama, Not the United States

"Je veillerai à affirmer l'indépendance de la France sans compliquer la tâche de Barack Obama."

I will ensure that the independence of France is affirmed, in a way that does not complicate the task of Barack Obama

vows the Socialist president elect of France.

Not the task of the United States, mind you.

Not the task of the United States proper.

The task of the United States insofar as it is led by a fellow leftist.

As America's Democrats say that the French and Greek election results are good for the party; as the New York Times says that François Hollande's Socialist economic polices are likely a “better fit” for the U.S. economic positions of the Obama White House (merci à Hervé), laying out how "the Socialist and Barack Obama are ideologically linked"; and as François Hollande himself says his election must be welcomed by people all over the continent, the president-elect makes clear in Corine Lesnes's article on his interview with Slate.fr that he is allied with the United States only insofar as the superpower is led by a fellow leftist, not by a Romney, a Gingrich, a McCain, a Palin, or a Bush (perhaps not even a Clinton).

François Hollande has promised to remove French troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, a year ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy's schedule, and insofar as France's new president is know in America at all, UC Berkeley's Jonah Levy informs us that he is considered anti-American by even the Obama White House.

LA PROMESSE AFGHANE

Le premier sujet qui les préoccupe est l'Afghanistan. Selon un haut responsable, la Maison Blanche a bien compris que, deux semaines après avoir été élu, François Hollande peut difficilement renoncer à sa promesse de retirer les troupes combattantes à la fin de l'année. Elle a aussi entendu le message que le candidat avait fait passer, avant même le premier tour, et qu'il a répété dans son entretien à Slate.fr : "Je veillerai à affirmer l'indépendance de la France sans compliquer la tâche de Barack Obama."

Il n'empêche. Pour Marvin Kalb, de la Brookings Institution, autre cercle de réflexion, c'est un "mauvais signal" en direction des alliés qui seront tentés d'accélérer eux aussi le calendrier. "Comme nous l'avons appris au Vietnam, quand un camp commence à se retirer du combat, il perd du pouvoir dans la négociation", estime-t-il. Jonah Levy pense lui aussi que "c'est un geste embarrassant pour le gouvernement Obama. Et il est perçu comme anti-américain".

By Intervening Militarily Against Islamists in West Africa, "Hollande of Mali" Earns Foreign Policy Kudos

By intervening militarily in Mali, reports Hélène Sallon in Le Monde, François Hollande has earned foreign policy kudos, including from numerous newspapers in western Africa. The French presence fighting the Al Qaeda group is slated to grow from the initial 550 soldiers to 2,500.

En lançant une intervention militaire largement attendue au Mali, le président François Hollande a gagné sur la scène internationale ses premiers galons de chef d'Etat et s'est attiré les éloges des éditorialistes des pays de l'ouest de l'Afrique. "Hollande le Malien", le gratifie ainsi dans son éditorial le site Internet Maliweb. Une distinction qui n'allait pas sans dire. "Si jusque-là pour sa sympathie jugée protubérante pour le Mouvement national de libération de l'Azawad — MNLA,  la France n'était plus la tasse de thé des Maliens, l'action rapide et décisive de François Hollande à leurs côtés les réconcilie désormais", précise l'éditorial.

Désormais, aux yeux de tous, il est le "sauveur" face à "un péril qui n'avait jamais paru aussi global", poursuit Maliweb. Le quotidien électronique Le Journal du Mali salue également "la main tendue de la France à notre pays malmené depuis huit mois par les djihadistes et terroristes de tout bord, infiltrés au Nord et contre toute libertés individuelles et tolérance..." Il loue en François Hollande "la finesse politique" et la "prudence" d'"un homme d'Etat qui s'affirme de jour en jour".

If Hollande wins the French presidency, the move to impose higher taxes on the wealthy could get a boost in the U.S.

Nicolas Sarkozy … is in deep trouble and is looking, for now, as if he could be the first one-term French president since 1981

writes Steven Erlanger on the front page of the International Herald Tribune in an article the New York times calls With Vote Days Away, Outlook for Sarkozy Dims but which the IHT entitles, more upbeat-edly (for the French president), Which way will Sarkozy turn?

He appears to be running neck and neck with his main challenger, the Socialist candidate François Hollande, in the first round of voting on Sunday, when 10 candidates are competing. But all the opinion polls show Mr. Sarkozy losing to Mr. Hollande in a face-off two weeks later.

… His possible defeat carries implications that would radiate far beyond Paris. Mr. Sarkozy has had contentious but valuable relationships with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a fellow conservative, on European and euro zone issues; with the British on defense issues, including the Libyan war; and with President Obama on issues involving Iran and Israel, NATO and Russia.

A victory by even a centrist Socialist like Mr. Hollande, who has advocated higher taxes on the rich and a greater emphasis on growth over austerity, would create immediate strains with Germany and rattle financial markets that are already nervous about the size of France’s debt. Mr. Hollande has also said that he wants to pull French troops out of Afghanistan sooner than NATO has agreed to do. Still, he says that his first visit abroad would be to Berlin, no matter how chilly the reception.

Mr. Sarkozy faces an electoral dilemma that is inherently tactical. Presuming he gets through to the runoff on May 6, does he continue to run to the right, or move to the center? And will it make enough of a difference anyway in a nation that admires what he promised at the beginning of his term five years ago — a “rupture” with the past — but not what he has delivered, which is a stagnant economy and unemployment at its highest level in 12 years?

Even more troubling for Mr. Sarkozy, the polls indicate that many French simply do not like him — his negative ratings are high — and that many of them will vote in the second round for the bland Mr. Hollande or simply stay home rather than see Mr. Sarkozy back in the Élysée Palace for another five years. [The Economist agrees that "All the signs point to a win for the Socialist François Hollande, chiefly because he is the anti-Sarkozy candidate".]

… Working to [the Socialist candidate's] advantage is the fact that the public has tired of the grim business of budget cutting and is yearning for a different approach. Mr. Hollande is providing that, in the form of higher taxes on the rich, more state spending and an assault on inequality, themes that could conceivably reverberate beyond the Continent in subsequent years, particularly if they succeed.

Growing inequality has become a hot-button topic across Europe, and if Mr. Hollande were to win, the move to impose higher taxes on the wealthy could get a boost elsewhere, even in the United States, where President Obama has already promoted the so-called Buffett Rule to impose a minimum tax rate on incomes in excess of $1 million a year.

A potential victory by Mr. Hollande is already making the markets nervous about the willingness of France, and perhaps other European countries, to stick with pledges of austerity. That is true even though he promises to balance France’s budget by 2017. That, in itself, would limit his policy choices, says a prominent economist, Nicolas Baverez. But the same is true for Mr. Sarkozy, he says.

“No matter who is elected, France will have a major confrontation with the markets,” Mr. Baverez said. “There is very low growth and a huge public debt, and a refusal of the French political class to deal with the necessary cuts in public spending.” But with Mr. Hollande, he said, the test from the markets would come sooner.

See also:
• As the French prepare to vote, a fog of financial uncertainty envelops France
• A Miserable Precedent? In France's 1st Election Round, Extremism’s Total Promises to Beat Either Mainstream Candidate
• The Coming Hollandaise Golden Age
• A Good Reason to Vote for the Left in France? More Sex Partners, More Fellatio, and More Sodomy

Pinning Down the Master of Evasion, French Socialist François Hollande

…if Hollande wins, the French will have chosen a man at ease with generalities who aspires to be “willful” and “dignified,” a symbol of “brotherhood” and “bringing people together”

writes John Vinocur in his International Herald Tribune column, which opens with

one of those rare political moments when the campaign-screech and repetitive mumbling stopped.

Last week, a French television interviewer asked François Hollande, the favorite to win France’s presidential election on Sunday, if he thought there were too many foreigners in France. Simple question, and one central to a campaign where extremists of the right and left won 30 percent of the votes in a first-round ballot.

Yet Hollande would not answer yes or no. He reached for legalisms instead.

The journalist poked again: “Why this tendency to evade things? What’s your profound conviction? You aren’t telling us.” More references followed from Hollande involving the status of legal foreign residents and the possible expulsion of illegals.

The interviewer insisted: “Deep inside, what’s your conviction?”

“I’m not a commentator on public life,” Hollande replied. “I am the next president of France.”

… As standard-bearer of a program of “change” — his own watchword — Hollande doesn’t offer explicit and decisive plans for reforms in French economic and civic life, remains silent about the pain and disruption that would come with any serious structural changes, and relies on the lingering unpopularity of President Nicolas Sarkozy to put the Socialists in office.

Evasive? Think of this: Here is a self-described Man of the Left who, with a pol’s calculation, refuses to say on national television that no, France doesn’t have too many foreigners. Sarkozy, at least, has risked claiming the opposite.

Instead, to deal with the rubbed-raw issues of Muslim immigration and integration, Hollande flees anything that sounds like a call for an affirmative action program.

His friends say charm and amiability are at the center of Hollande’s character. His political enemies argue he is an eternal maneuverer, more calculating than courageous. And, indeed, the Socialist candidate stepped around any word of criticism for the left-wing extremist Jean-Luc Mélenchon when he compared Sarkozy to Vichy’s pro-Nazi collaborators.

Even Hollande’s eldest son Thomas, a lawyer, has described his father’s personality as “elusive.”

François Hollande, Man of Mystery?

The French have never been passionate about François Hollande, their new president. A professional politician, never a government minister, he has been engaged in the machinations of the Socialist Party for most of his career.

Thus starts the book review by Steven Erlanger.

But a new book about the inner workings of his campaign suggests that Mr. Hollande is a man of self-mastery and doggedness, with unplumbed depths. According to Laurent Binet, the novelist who wrote the book, Mr. Hollande is “a control freak,” a kind of “war machine” with a mysterious core, who detests Mr. Sarkozy and carefully managed the rivalrous personalities of the Socialist Party.

Embedded in the campaign with the understanding that he would publish only after the election, Mr. Binet, 40, whose parents were Communists, said in an interview that he initially favored Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a candidate further to the left. Mr. Binet said he was “seduced” by Mr. Hollande but still found him a mystery, a man who is affable but keeps his real self in reserve.

“I noted this in him,” Mr. Binet wrote. “What we take too often for joviality masks a fundamental irony that he only abandons in exceptional circumstances, when the gravity of the moment demands it.”

… “Mitterrand was a mystery, and he was called the Sphinx, and you could see it in his face,” Mr. Binet said. “But with Hollande it was perhaps more clever. He looks like the guy next door, but it’s much more complicated than that.”

… What seemed to animate Mr. Hollande, besides his commitment to winning the presidency, was his distaste for the incumbent, Mr. Sarkozy.

… But one of his few regrets during the long campaign, Mr. Hollande admits, is when he called Mr. Sarkozy a “sale mec,” or a nasty piece of work, a remark in an off-the-record lunch with French journalists that was quickly leaked. Mr. Hollande also said he regretted wasting his time making a trip to London, since foreign policy has little impact on French presidential campaigns.

The French Socialist Party is in many ways the most archaic in Europe

The French like to think they are better than other Europeans at resisting Americanization

writes Christine Ockrent in the International Herald Tribune as she discusses France's main opposition party.

So don’t tell the Socialists they have given in, first by holding France’s first-ever party primaries, and second by embracing the mantra of their newly anointed champion, François Hollande, about reviving the “French Dream.” In contrast to the American Dream (whatever has happened to it), we’ve not heard much about a French one. In France individualism and self-improvement are supposed to be sacrificed for the common good on the altar of “la République.”

In any case, Hollande has every right to savor a personal victory few people bet on last summer, and to hear the change in the way people talk of him. Gone is the unfocused, indecisive, inexperienced party bureaucrat. The 57-year-old member of the National Assembly from central France is now hailed as “a true statesman” by former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who never gave him a government post. To some of his former rivals, now eager to gather under his banner, Hollande is a “born leader,” a pragmatist clever enough to bury the ideological party platform they prepared in deference to the imperatives of the current crisis.

Europe has a long tradition of alternating conservative and left-wing governments. France has been doing that since the 1980s, which makes it more difficult for either side to blame the other for a huge increase in the national debt or unemployment.

Still, the French Socialist Party is in many ways the most archaic in Europe — riddled with Marxist-tainted platitudes, reluctant to adjust to the more mainstream social-democrat stance adopted long ago in Britain and elsewhere on the Continent. So it is worth noting that Hollande’s team now calls him “a true social-democrat” — something that not long ago was almost an insult in the official party lexicon.

This stance explains in part his victory over the official party leader, Martine Aubry, the mayor of Lille and a member of governments under François Mitterrand and Jospin. Hard working, stubborn, possessed of an acid tongue, but warm with the few she trusts, the woman who implemented the 35-hour work week is the daughter of Jacques Delors, the former president of the European Commission who opted out of the French presidential contest in 1995, to the despair of the pragmatic left. Hollande, clever, agile and humorous, has long posed as the political heir to Delors — the spiritual son against the true daughter.

Hollande and Aubry have always disliked each other intensely. Their fight for the nomination was both brutal and constrained — Aubry more on the left, doctrinaire side of the party, Hollande more to the center, smooth, cautious, conciliatory, calling constantly for party unity.

His campaign for the primaries was a good indication of the course he will follow to try to reach the Elysée Palace. Thinner than before, his hair dyed dark, with custom-tailored suits and new spectacles, Hollande imitates Mitterrand, copying his gestures, even his rhetoric, as if to revive memories of gentler economic and social conditions. From the start, he has been pleading for a “normal” presidency, far from Nicolas Sarkozy’s frenzied and chaotic performance. He thus appeals to a kind of French conservatism which has more to do with style than politics, a longing to be comforted rather than challenged.

The socialist candidate seems to have caught the mood of a nation more anxious than most about globalization, torn between universalism and provincialism, plagued with economic frailties that no government has been brave enough to confront. Even if their country is not the worst off in Europe, opinion surveys show that the French are the most pessimistic about the future, and consume the most anti-depressants.

What will be Hollande’s platform? To win the primaries, he never went far from his party’s mantra — create jobs without increasing public debt, foster economic growth, take money from the rich and regulate the banks, retire at 60 as if there were no demographic and financial constraints (although he was more cautious on that score than his competitors). But the gravity of the economic crisis is bound to have a sobering effect on the campaign. Hollande is a pragmatist. That is why he is such a dangerous adversary for Sarkozy, who will have to be making difficult decisions right up to the spring election.

The conservatives at first sneered at the Socialist primaries, then quarrelled over the need to do the same. In the end, Sarkozy has let the opposition monopolize the discussion, and blame the crisis all on him. In the meantime, scandals have stained his entourage; his party leaders keep bickering; his rating in public opinion polls is lower than ever, and he appears to have been rejected by many of those he seduced four years ago, including traditional conservatives.

Were the election held today, polls show that Hollande would win by a 10 percent margin — and that’s without a clear program. There are still six months to go. Sarkozy is a formidable campaigner, but he has a difficult uphill battle to fight.

In a French Journalism School Poll, the Left's Hollande won 100% of the Votes While the Right's Sarkozy Obtained Not A Single Vote in Either Round

In Europe, it turns out, and particularly in France, most journalists are leftists just like in the United States.

Before France's presidential election, a poll was held in le Centre de formation des journalistes de Paris, writes Alain Frachon, with the first round showing the left and the far left out ahead, with incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy obtaining not a single vote, and with François Hollande winning the second round handily, with 100% of the votes, "à la North Korea".

A l'occasion du scrutin présidentiel, le Centre de formation des journalistes de Paris organise un vote parmi les étudiants de première année. François Hollande et Jean-Luc Mélenchon arrivent en tête du premier tour ; Nicolas Sarkozy n'obtient pas une voix. Le candidat socialiste rassemble 100 % des suffrages au deuxième tour. Un score à la nord-coréenne ! Grognards et grognons de l'UMP y voient la confirmation de ce qu'ils disent : la presse est partisane.

Alain Frachon part alors aux États-Unis pour évoquer

une grosse étude intitulée L'Elite médiatique. C'est du costaud, argumenté, documenté. Le livre [de trois politologues américains, Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman, Linda Lichter] démontre que la plupart des journalistes aux Etats-Unis sont des électeurs du Parti démocrate. Il établit un parti pris systématiquement antirépublicain dans la couverture des grands quotidiens et des grandes chaînes de télévision. Il dénonce ce qu'il appelle "un biais journalistique presque inconscient" en faveur de la gauche, mélange de suffisance élitiste et de complexe de supériorité morale, qui, dit-il, ne reflète aucunement l'état de l'opinion.

Retour en France, où Le Monde revient sur vote au Centre de formation des journalistes de Paris :

" Les journalistes sont tous de gauche ", assure une femme. Elle en veut pour preuve le sondage réalisé dans une école de journalistes : 100 % des étudiants ont voté pour l'autre bord. " Dès le départ, ils sont hostiles ", dit-elle. On parle ensuite d'Audrey Pulvar et Arnaud Montebourg, d'Anne Sinclair et Dominique Strauss-Kahn, de François Hollande et Valérie Trierweiler, pour montrer jusqu'où vont ces affinités électives.

Voir aussi : Le Monde a-t-il contribué à la chute de Nicolas Sarkozy ?