How bloggers revealed Royal's break-up

How bloggers revealed Royal's break-up

By Peter Allen in Paris, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:35am BST 24/06/2007

To some, it was simply unimportant tittle-tattle, to others it was yet more evidence of the sleaze and hypocrisy of the ruling elite.

Last week's announcement by Ségolène Royal, the former presidential candidate, that she was separating from her boyfriend François Hollande because of his infidelity was the latest in a series of scandals to hit France's political class.

But while the tales of secret lovers and illicit love-children have enthralled and appalled the French public in equal measure, the driving force behind such revelations has not been supermarket tabloids or France's respectful mainstream media.

Instead, it has been the work of les blogueurs, the country's new chattering class, whose discussions of their leaders' peccadilloes now threatens to undermine the country's notoriously strict privacy laws.

The break-up of Miss Royal's home, along with revelations of an extra-marital affair by Nicolas Sarkozy, her victorious rival in the presidential election last month, are but two examples of stories that have first found currency only on the web.

Only after they were in widespread circulation were they followed up by France's television and newspapers, which are often accused of having too cosy a relationship with the politicians they are supposed to scrutinise.

While French politicians still enjoy legal protection of their private lives which is the envy of many British public figures, many media analysts believe the internet will soon make that a thing of the past.

Pierre Dominique, a Paris-based political commentator who regularly contributes to French websites, said: "This was a clear example of how blogs are gradually eroding French privacy laws. Important issues can be raised without fear of prosecution, and this can only be a good thing for democracy.

"Our political leaders have a terrible record in stifling important information about what they get up to."

According to the polling company Ipsos Mori, France is "the most blog-savvy country in Europe". Sites in Belgium and Switzerland, as well as France, led the way with the revelations about the Royal/Hollande relationship.

An article detailing Miss Royal's anger at Mr Hollande's secret relationship with the Paris Match political journalist Valérie Trierweiler first appeared on May 16 on the popular LePolitique.com site.


Mr Hollande, the leader of the Socialist Party, fired off a legal letter, trying to get the story withdrawn, even though it was well-sourced.

More than a month and numerous denials later, Miss Royal finally admitted on Monday in a radio interview that the rumours were true. It was only then that leading -television channels and newspapers felt confident enough to carry the story.

The Left-wing Libération led the mockery with a front page picture of the couple - who have four children aged between 14 and 22 - under the headline, "Who's going to look after the party?"

Mr Sarkozy's well-known desire for privacy has also been assaulted by bloggers. At his insistence, the editor of Paris Match was sacked two years ago after publishing a front-page picture of his wife, Cécilia Sarkozy, with her Moroccan-born lover at that time, Richard Attias.

When Mr Sarkozy was amorously linked with Anne Fulda, the political journalist, at the start of this year there were further attempts to stop the press publishing the truth. Previously, a tell-all book about the Sarkozy marriage, written by Valerie Domain after interviews with a co-operative Mrs Sarkozy, was pulped after the then interior minister complained.

Determined to beat Mr Sarkozy's censorship, Mrs Domain simply changed the characters' names and reissued her work as a Mills & Boon style novel, Between Heart and Reason. The revelations - by now re-attached to the Sarkozys - quickly found their way on to the internet.

Guy Capel, another French blogger, said: "I regularly read postings about the Sarkozy marriage on Swiss sites. Blogging has opened a new, more honest chapter in French political life."

It all makes the era when the former Socialist leader, François Mitterrand, was able to keep the existence of his illegitimate daughter secret throughout his presidency, seem like ancient history.

But, according to a new book about sex and French politics, Sexus Politicus, internet revelations might even assist politicians.

"Far from being a flaw, to cast yourself in the role of seducer is without doubt an important quality in our political life," said its co-author, Christophe Deloire. A recent French opinion poll found 83 per cent of the electorate would still vote for a candidate if he had cheated on his wife.