Sego

Regulars to this blog (if there are any) will know that I am not a fan of Segolene Royal. Latest events have only confirmed my prejudice. You may recall that on the evening of the legislative election results on June 17, it was announced that she and her partner Francois Hollande had split up. Royal made the revelation herself in an interview with two AFP journalists. She told them that she and Hollande -- who is the head of the Socialist party -- were no longer to be considered a couple. She did not say when they had separated, but hinted that he had found another woman. The way she made it all public -- in the briefest of interviews -- implied that it was all a painful concession to the mediatisation of her life. In an ideal world, she clearly thinks, her private life would remain her private life. What portentous poppycock! It angers me the full angering that this woman came within an ace of being made France's president without ever once deigning to inform the nation about the state of her relationship with the leader of the Socialist Party. This was not some anodyne private matter. The guy with whom she did or did not share the marital bed was the head of one of the two great political formations in the country, with presumably rather strong views on current events. The country was led to believe that their 30 year relationship was just fine. But no! We were all wrong. They weren't together. There had been disagreements. They represented very different currents in left-wing thought. They were -- and are -- at odds. And this wasn't relevant???? It is doubly insulting that she chose to make the revelation the minute the electoral season closed -- maintaining to the end the hypocrisy that it was not the country's business. To think she could have been president!!!