As the conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy lost the recent general election in France to Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party, the title of France’s first lady will be handed over from Carla Bruni, Sarkozy’s supermodel-cum-songwriter wife, to Holland’s girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler.
This is the first Socialist president in France in this century (and a while back into the previous century), and the first time ever that the country doesn’t officially have a first lady – Hollande and Trierweiler are not married, neither they are going to, in order not to follow the example of Sarkozy’s quickly-put-up marriage. Trierweiler has been Hollande’s girlfriend since 2006 and she likes to be called his companion, and not a “partner.”
Some interesting facts about Treiweiler are listed here:
- She is 47, has been divorced twice and has three children
- She’s a political journalist with Paris Match where she is known as “The Rottweiler,” and she was said to have slapped a colleague for making a sexist remark.
- She has been behind some of the changes in Hollande’s image both physically (making him lose about 20 lbs weight) and socially (making him drop some of his most “bland” and “wishy-washy” mannerisms for which he had been mocked.)
- According to her, shopping and cooking is mostly done by her boyfriend!
- She’s got a Twitter account.
On May 15 the charming Carla Bruni will be yielding her position, and we can expect a complete change of scene as Trierweiler steps in. As regards style, the unmarried first lady has already been lauded as fashion-aware – she has a penchant for stylish scarves and classic-cut clothes with elegant silhouettes that look unobtrusively national.
