Paris:
François Hollande could actually have been the first "laddy" or "first gentleman" (or whatever it is that husbands of women Presidents are called) had Segolène Royal been elected President in 2007. France unfortunately hasn't ever had any "Premier Monsieur" so far. As of now, Hollande will take over as President on 15th May and he has an unwed companion who will be France's "Première Dame".
For all their disdain for the "First Lady culture" the French are nevertheless talking a great deal about Hollande's companion these days. In fact, there is a deluge of reports on Valerie Trierweiler in the French media everyday and she is even trending on Twitter every now and then.
If Valerie Trierweiler is making news, there's no doubt that she owes some of it to Carla Bruni who has been compared to Jacky Kennedy with her rather glamorous profile. The French approved of her taste in clothes but didn't particularly adore her. Carla had succeeded Bernadette Chirac, who was more of an old fashioned grandmotherly figure no one disliked too much. Mrs Bruni Sarkozy was far from being a darling of the French press. Accompanying Sarkozy to a television studio recently, behind the scenes, she said very coyly, that "journalists are Pinnochios". A mild expression of the resentment the Presidential couple felt towards what journalists said about them. It's highly improbable that Valerie Trierweiler will be adored by the French media either, even if she addresses them as "confrères and consoeurs".
Trierweiler also owes all this attention to the fact that she was a mildly well known journalist and let's be honest, that she has oodles of Parisian chic, hasn't gone unnoticed. The magazine she works for, is a well known one in France, it's called "Paris Match" and reads a bit like a cross between a news and tabloid magazine. Her own magazine put her on the cover page and called her "Hollande's charming asset'. She reacted angrily because she thought it was a sexist headline. One of Nicolas Sarkozy's party MPs called her "Rottweiler" and Hollande even responded to that as being tasteless. The French media "consumed" all of this with a lot of relish during the campaign.
Trierweiler recently tweeted about the journalists parked outside their house night and day and begged them to understand that they needed privacy. It's highly unlikely they'll listen to her. Her tweet itself made news. During the campaign she was always a few steps behind Hollande and spoke very rarely. No one cares that she isn't married to Hollande. They are "concubin" and "concubine", a perfectly respectable legal status in France for a man and a woman living together in an "intimate" relationship.
Valerie was once married once to Denis Trierweiler. They have three teenage boys. Everyone knows that Hollande has never been the "marrying type". Neither was Segolène Royal, his ex partner with whom he lived for 30 years. They had four children. When Hollande and Royal's fourth child was born, guess who interviewed Segolène? Valerie Trierweiler herself. The Socialist Party was her "beat" at the magazine. The day Hollande won, both Valerie and Segolene were on the stage, far apart of course. The media couldn't help noticing that Hollande gave two kisses on the cheek to Segolène and one on the lips to Valerie.
The typical irreverence with which the French have treated their first ladies was quite evident in a prime time satire show some years ago when Jacques Chirac was President. They showed Bernadette Chirac "touching" her bag kept on her lap in an "erotic way" while watching a tele shopping video. Apparently Bernadette Chirac was particulary fond of hand bags and even gifted one to Diana.
French first ladies are just their husband's companions and don't have any official privileges. In reality of course they do but none of that is official. It's mostly up to the ladies themselves to define their public roles. "We don't elect families or couples, we elect a President", say French voters. They like to dismiss all questions on first ladies with the wave of a hand. Yet there will always be some who will lap up all there is in the tabloids about how both Carla and Valerie had similar trench coats. But then again the tabloid tradition is highly underdeveloped in France as compared to the UK or the US.
On the whole the French are still quite obsessive about keeping the private lives of politicians out of public scrutiny. Sarkozy was never forgiven for trying to "use" his affair with Carla Bruni early in his term. In fact their child Giuilia was kept away from the media- her face has not yet been formally revealed to the press. Neither Sarkozy not Carla Bruni spoke much about their children in public.
The curiosity of the international media about the first ladies amuses the French. But the most amusing reports in the French media are those that say their First Lady doesn't "exist". Technically she doesn't, at least in their Constitution. The Elysée Palace is not even supposed to pay her bills.