Toothless Ones



The French, by tradition, like to keep their politics and private lives separate, or at least they have done up until now, which must suit powerful men like Francois Hollande or Dominique Straus Khan who cheated on their wives and partners, but then took the view that this 'tom-catting' behaviour says nothing about who they are as individuals. 

Well I think they're wrong because there's a huge difference between a marriage or relationship breaking down or even ending in divorce, compared to lying and cheating on the person with whom you are supposed to be sharing your life, especially if the deceit is persistent or has been going on for a long time. 

Anyway the scorned First Lady of France, Valerie Trierweiler has gained her revenge big time by revealing that the French President had a habit of describing poor people as 'toothless ones' which isn't going down too well with his comrades in the Socialist Party, for understandable reasons.    

Palace in panic as Hollande risks taking his nation down with him


President Hollande: 'suffering a moral and political crisis' Alain Jocard/Getty Images

President Hollande sought to defend his socialist credentials yesterday after two days that saw a demolition job by his former mistress, new lows in opinion polls and the dismissal of a freshly-appointed minister in a tax scandal.

Opposition leaders and the media questioned how long Mr Hollande could survive political and personal disgrace that had befallen his 27-month presidency, despite the constitutional guarantee that nothing short of high treason or his voluntary resignation can unseat him until 2017.

“The people are on the edge of revolt,” said François Fillon, who served as prime minister throughout Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year presidential term. “The country is blocked and everyone wants a political dénouement to this crisis. Unfortunately . . . it is up to the president to decide, but we cannot go on like this.”

Le Monde, France’s most authoritative newspaper, reported “a wave of panic” at the Élysée Palace and wrote off Mr Hollande in a devastating editorial. “Over 10 days, the descent into hell seems endless and bottomless,” it said. “More than ever, the emperor is naked.”

Mr Hollande is suffering a moral and political crisis, added the newspaper, the voice of France’s left-leaning establishment. “The impotence of the executive is obvious. The erosion of the presidential image is terrible. The collapse of authority is worrying . . . How much time is such a situation tenable? How can the head of state hold out?” it asked.

The president’s “legitimacy is in shreds and the country’s trust in him is near zero. Sitting it out and enduring will not be enough to save his term from a cruel end,” it added.

The sense of late summer emergency has been fed by grim economic news and a chain of woes that have hit the hapless president who won power in 2012 promising to be “Monsieur Normal” after the soap-opera behaviour of Mr Sarkozy. Ten days ago left-wing cabinet members rebelled and were thrown out as Mr Hollande swung to the right, alienating many of his own voters.

This week, he suffered one of his heaviest blows with the publication of a book by Valérie Trierweiler, the companion he spurned last January.

The former first lady, who was rejected by Mr Hollande after his affair with the actress, Julie Gayet, depicted him as a lying, cynical, weak-minded cheat who holds his own left-wing voters in contempt.Merci pour Ce Moment, the lurid attack on a sitting head of state, has become the fastest selling book since the French version of the EL James novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.

Mr Hollande’s expression for the poor as “the toothless”, reported by Ms Trierweiler, has become a tag for internet mockery. The president felt compelled to address the criticism at the Nato summit yesterday. He was “at the service of the poorest,” he declared.

Two opinion polls published yesterday, but taken before the publication of the book, piled on the pain, showing that Mr Hollande’s approval, already the lowest ever, had sunk several points to new depths. TNS Sofres reported a five-point drop to 13 per cent and a survey by CSA recorded a four-point slide to 19 per cent.

Manuel Valls, the prime minister appointed in April to restore confidence, has been dragged down with the president. Popular at first, rating well over 40 per cent, he has sunk to the low 30s.

It emerged on Thursday that Thomas Thévenoud, a junior minister for external trade, had been sacked a week into his appointment following his admission that the tax authorities were pursuing him for failing to file income returns for three years. Coming 18 months after the resignation of the taxation minister over his own tax affairs, it was a final straw for many of Mr Hollande’s own socialist MPs.

Despite Mr Hollande’s predicament, the main centre-right opposition, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), has refrained from calling on him to dissolve parliament, the nuclear option for an unpopular president.

That would bring a parliamentary election but not affect the president’s tenure. The UMP, formerly led by Mr Sarkozy, is split by civil war and in no mood to take on the job of governing in “co-habitation” with Mr Hollande.

The chief demands for dissolution are coming from Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right National Front, the party which stands to gain most from the disrepute into which the whole mainstream political class has fallen. She said she was ready to serve as prime minister under Mr Hollande, assuming that the National Front, which holds two seats, won a majority.

She was not demanding his resignation, she said. “I respect the state institutions. I do not question the legitimacy of the president.”

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