Pave: Election Heartbreaks II Redux

Le jour 36 de Sarko

Wylie and Miss Counihan met face to face, a trying experience for them both.

"You cur," said Miss Counihan, getting her blow in first.

"You bitch," said Wylie.

They belonged to the same great group.

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989),
novelist
Murphy (New York: Grove Press, 1957), 210.

BITCH! CUR! THE SAME GREAT GROUP
How We Will Always Remember Them

SÉGOLÈNE SUDDENLY FALLS OUT OF LOVE:
A FRENCH POLITICAL DRAMA

June 19, 2007 (Rue89) - Last March, Socialist candidate for President Ségolène Royal wrote a book that confirmed her enduring romance with François Hollande -- the father of her four children and the leader of the Socialist party. She even discussed a possible wedding to the man she met thirty years ago in the élite Ecole National d'Administration but never married (they have a civil partnership). Today Royal announced their breakup and said that Hollande has been cheating on her for a long time.

... But François Hollande's 'romantic life' is not new. In fact it's old enough to suggest that Ségolène Royal was already aware of it when she published her own book of interviews, "Maintenant" ("Now") last March.

NO MORE AMOUR:
ROYAL TAKES AIM AT EX-BEAU'S JOB

PARIS June 19, 2007 (G&M/AP) - The famously dysfunctional couple at the head of France's main opposition Socialist Party is breaking up.

"Famously dysfunctional"? That's news. Only yesterday Ségo and Dutch were France's bright couple. Here, for example, is last year's valentine from Der Spiegel (04.13.06):

Royal was successful in her later ministerial roles, partly because she was so adept at merging her professional activities with the events of her private life, including pregnancy and giving birth. The approach meant that her political ascendancy was accompanied by a never-ending flood of public images from her family album -- Ségolène with her baby, Ségolène having breakfast, and so on.

Royal tries to bring together the best of two worlds, supporting emancipation while continuing to emphasize her femininity. She wants to be attractive but not seductive, a champion of women's rights but also a dedicated mother who enjoys her role as part of her family and household.

Here, IHT (07.20.06):

The couple has intrigued a nation that only recently discovered a taste for politicians' private lives. Unmarried but together for almost 26 years in a generation where divorce is common, they represent at once family values and modernity.

Here, RFI (11.27.06):

On ne peut manquer de constater, malgré tout, que Ségolène Royal et François Hollande ont effectué un numéro de duettiste assez au point devant les militants. ... Une répartition des rôles quasi parfaite. A elle, l’aura. A lui, la pugnacité. A elle de convaincre les Français. A lui de rassembler la gauche.

[One cannot help noting, despite everything, Ségolène Royal and François Holland performed a polished little duet act in front of the militants... A nearly perfect distribution of roles. To her, the glory. To him, the battle. With her persuading the French. With him uniting the left.]

[All emphases added.]

Yesterday's bright couple is today's "famously dysfunctional couple". There is nothing so spiteful as a snookered press caught out.

Ségolène Royal showed little delicacy in sweeping aside François Hollande, Socialist Party boss and the father of her four children, to bid for the French presidency herself. She also kept him and the Socialists at arm's length for much of her failed campaign.

And on Sunday night, as results of parliamentary elections rolled in, they announced that their romantic relationship, intimately intertwined with their political one, is over.

As the Socialists try to regroup after losing the presidential and legislative elections, Ms. Royal will now be free to seek her party's leadership without the baggage of domestic issues. Mr. Hollande is expected to make way for a successor next year, and the Socialists are bracing for a leadership battle that could pit Ms. Royal against former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

... The split seemed a fitting symbol of the Socialists' disarray, and overshadowed the party's surprisingly good showing in Sunday's parliamentary election: While the Socialists lost, they were not clobbered as had been expected.

PFFT (What is this?): No more amour 4¾ | Rayonnement français ½