By First lady of France, Valerie Trierweiler, left her partner of seven years, French president Francois Hollande, and plans on traveling to India for an anti-hunger charity, according to an Al Jazeera article.
Her surprising departure has raised some eyebrows, as it closely followed rumors of Hollande’s alleged affair with another woman.
Trierweiler and Hollande never married but had been in a relationship since 2006. Trierweiler assumed the role as first lady of France following Hollande’s 2012 election.
Celebrity reports speculated that Hollande was seeing French actress and producer Julie Gayet, according to Al Jazeera.
Opinion’s about Trierweiler have been considerably low, according to a BVA opinion poll in France.
Only eight percent of respondents in France had a favorable opinion of her, according to the Al Jazeera article.
Ironically, poll’s showed the public’s opinion of Hollande rose after the alleged affair. His popularity rose from 23 percent in December to 26 percent.
The majority of constituents in favor of Hollande are women in their early twenties to late forties, according to an article from The Standard UK.
Although some are paying attention to the scandal, there are many people still concerned with the existing economic crisis in France, according to an article in Reuters.
Since Hollande entered office, France’s high unemployment rate has slowly decreased and he is working on a “pro business shift policy,” according to Reuters.
As the scandal develops, many global news outlets are paying attention to Trierweiler’s personal life, focusing on her leaving her position as first lady and her subsequent trip to India.
We’ve seen this relationship between media coverage of a country’s politics and celebrity gossip before.
Hollande’s scandal leads us to think of other political figures who have faced similar scandals, such as former president Bill Clinton’s and his infamous affair with Monica Lewinsky between 1995 and 1997.
This affair was one of the factor’s that led to Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1998, although he was later acquitted by the Senate in 1999.
It’s a little sad that media outlets and the general public paid closer attention to Lewinsky than the progress Clinton made while in office, but that’s the nature of such scandals.
We see similar events happening in France, where some news outlets are highlighting opinion polls and Hollande’s alleged affair.
Like Hollande, Clinton’s opinion poll rose after the Lewinsky scandal, according to a poll conducted by CBS.
The problem is that news outlets are missing the bigger picture.
Global news outlets need to focus more on actual politics when it comes to political figures.
More attention should be paid to a country’s economic state rather than the private lives of its political figures.
We understand that going into political office draws the attention of the public. Arguments can be made that political figures should be cautious while in office to avoid scandals such as affairs.
However, we think that instead of drawing public attention to private affairs, the media has the power to inform the public on France’s economic development rather than update them on the details of an alleged affair.
