Is There Anything They Can’t Do?

Another thing the French are better at? Apart from knowing how to wear little scarves and chain-smoking and being thin and having silent, dutiful children who eat snails without complaint? Their politicians’ romantic entanglements:

Geoffroy Didier of the UMP, said Trierweiler’s personal “score-settling” meant Hollande’s promised “exemplary republic” had turned into a bad “celebrity” saga. “The ‘normal presidency’ is definitively dead,” he declared. “From now on, it’s Dallas at the Elysée.”

Several rightwing politicians accused Hollande of carrying out a love-life “vaudeville”. One warned of “score-settling at the OK Corral”. Royal declined to comment. The Socialist leader, Aubry, said the “only thing that matters” was Hollande’s support for Royal. The Socialist Jean-Louis Bianco said Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the last Socialist president François Mitterrand, would never have allowed herself to “meddle” in politics.

The Washington Post wonders how this will impact public opinion, even in France:

“For a president who wants to be normal, this is not a great record,” said Philippe Allary, a physical therapist who prefers former president Nicolas Sarkozy.